The Darkness Within
by Etherna
Summary: AU. A new Chief Engineer joins enterprise when Trip leaves. More about her than everbody else. Eventually AT'P.
1. Default Chapter

MEETINGS AND GREETINGS

Earth, Star date 2157, July 7th

"Trip could you come to my ready room, please?"

"Sure Captain, I'll be right there."

Jon turned away from the comm. and sighed, he went to his window; they were in the space dock orbiting over earth, it was good to be home again. The doorbell beeped and he called out for Trip to come in,

"What's up captain?" Trip asked as he stepped through the threshold.

"Starfleet has accepted your request to transfer to the Columbia." He said as he handed him the PADD, Trip took it and studied it quietly

"Has there been any word about my replacement yet, 'cos I was about to recommend-

"Admiral Gardner seems to have found someone who he thinks maybe almost as good as you, I'm meeting them this afternoon," he looked at his watch, "in an hour. Damn, I'd better get down there." He said as he grabbed his jacket. He headed for the door and turned to Trip, "You are not leaving for about a week, so we'll have a party. I'll get Hoshi to plan it, probably on the night before we get off this hunk of metal." He waved and went out the door.

* * *

Rhiannon was late, her bike thundered through the streets, all anyone saw pass by was a blue steak, she was pushing her bike to the limit. Starfleet loomed in front of her, she had to slow down now; she parked her bike and raced to the ladies' room, threw off her riding clothes and put on her Starfleet duds, put her very long white hair in an elaborate knot, slapped on some ice pink gloss, dusted her self down and stepped out headed for Admiral Gardener's office. She sat in a chair in the outside office and waited; soon after she was called in. 

She came out feeling exhausted, she did not understand why she was interviewed anyway and it was obvious the captain was not keen on it. She headed for the garden and sat at the fountain, she looked up, held her hand up to shield her eyes form the sun, a habit she'd gotten into trying to blend in; out there in the deep black were home and Lillith. To Rhiannon, this interview had been like a prayer answered, yes she had passed the tests but to be picked…she could build and fix anything from wooden sailing ship to star ships, planes, trains and automobiles but she had held back so she would not be noticed seen as different only as that girl with white hair. She sighed and picked up her bag, it was time to go home and rest. She returned to her apartment and packed some of her things and took a shuttle pod to London, then drove from her London apartment to her house in the country, it was nightfall the next day when she reached her house, she'd only bought the house a few years ago it was a five bedroom cottage, she did not need that much space but she liked big houses, and this one had a pool and a garden.

* * *

Jon had returned to the ship hours before, was in his room thumbing through a book when the door bell rang 

"Come,"

The door slid open and T'Pol entered

"Good evening Captain,"

"'Evening T'Pol, is something wrong?"

"No, I only came to ask how your meeting with Admiral Gardener went."

"Great actually, she was very good."

"She…?"

"Yes, she. The Admiral's candidate was a she, is there a problem?"

"No, I just never thought, it would be a woman."

"Yeah, me either. Lieutenant Commander Rhiannon Worth, she graduated two years after Trip"

"So, are you going to take her?"

"I don't know but I was thinking it was time for a new face or faces depending on who's leaving."

"The Commander leaving has saddened you, unfortunately it's my fault."

"I don't want to talk about whose fault it is. If Trip could not handle his emotions that is his..." After a moment's pause, "Maybe we should take Worth; they did say she was good."

* * *

Back flip, back flip, in air round house kick, perfect on toes landing, return to defensive stance. She had been at this all day. Her neighbour and very good friend Elena Wainright watched from the safety of a lounger on the patio outside the converted dining room,

"You know, I think you are going to tear a muscle or pull a ligament if you keep doing move like that. You should come out here and it's a sunny day thank goodness"

Rhiannon stopped to look at her friend, the sun did look inviting as it streamed through the glass roof of the over the pool, maybe she should take a swim instead

"I've been doing this all my life and that's about," over a thousand years, "twenty one years and-

"Yada, yada, yada…heard it all before."

She stepped unto the patio, "You should wear this out sometime." Rhiannon looked down at her white body suit

"No thanks, I'd look like some alien just off the mother ship."

"Is that a bad thing. Besides you don't need any help with that, with that white hair of yours. Have you ever thought of dyeing it?"

"I dyed it black once, it looked grey; I had to shave my head after that and the other colours did not stay in."

Elena laughed, Rhiannon picked up a remote control and pressed a button and rock music came blaring out,

"I don't know how you stand this ruckus, I don't understand how anybody could stand it, they must have been deaf in the twenty-first century."

"I like twenty first century music, so much angst, comedy, love, sadness joy and most of all angst."

"Angst, violence what's the difference. All that 'angst' was what caused that war."

"Elena, it was bound to happen, without that war we wouldn't have this, destruction breeds creation and evolution, one of the laws of nature. Just like humans will eventually be destroyed to make way for something else."

"Yeah, whatever."

Rhiannon only ignored her "Now most people listen to jazz and classical, just history repeating if you ask me."

"What do you mean?"

"Fashion, music, way of life. Just repeats it self in cycles, which can be very long or short, it matters not."

"When did you become the great philosopher."

"What?!"

"Oh Great Confucius Rhiannon."

"What?! What in the galaxy's name are you talking about?"

"Speaking of the galaxy, you've not told me how your interview went?

"Good I suppose, though Captain Archer did not seem as enthused about my applying for the post as Admiral Gardener."

"Captain Archer?! Is he as handsome as he looks on TV?"

"Definitely."

"I don't think you should be worried, you get the post."

"I hope so." She said as she took a dive in to the pool.

* * *

A few houses down the road, Raexs stood at the balcony of his house looking at the stars, there was a stir in the air around him and a presence filled the room. Lillith of Parvessee, the last of her kind. She was tall, her green hair pale with age trailed in a braid down her back to the floor, she wore baggy dark brown trousers and matching jacket under which she wore a white body suit, on her waist hung a sword in its gold and lapis lazuli braid scabbard and on the other side a particle gun. She had pale green eyes and a purple jewel was embedded in her forehead. Lines of worry marred her face as she asked 

"How is she, Raexs?"

"She's fine. Don't worry Lillith, I would not let any harm come to her that's what you pay me for."

"What's happening with her now?"

"She applied for a job on Enterprise as chief engineer,"

"She wants to return to space."

"Should I stop it?"

"No. maybe this is good, whoever is commandeering this incidents will not expect it."

"Will you be telling the council she is returning to space?"

"No, and I advise you not too, agents of the Dalaedyth with want to stop her. I must be off now good business waits for no one." Lillith said as she stood upright and she kissed Raexs on the head and gave him a black card,

"All yours. That should keep you for a while."

"I don't need it; the last one you gave me has not been used up." She shook her head and tucked the card in his pocket, and patted him,

"You are guarding the most precious thing in my life, believe me it's worth it."

A bright light came from within her and engulfed her and in a blink she was gone.

* * *

Rhiannon was dozing she was lying in a lounger on her balcony looking out to the city, air traffic was increasing with the increasing popularity of shuttle pods, making it hard to sunbathe in peace. Her phone rang; she got off her chair and sauntered to the phone, 

"Hello,"

"Lieutenant Commander Worth, this is Captain Archer."

"Good evening, Captain."

"I've decided to accept you for the post of chief engineer."

Rhiannon was stunned; she had totally given up on being accepted.

"Lieutenant, are you okay?"

"Yes…no, I'm just so surprised."

"You didn't think you'd get the post?"

"With all due respect Captain, you did not seem interested during my interview."

That was odd and he'd thought he was putting on an interested face, he supposed his worry about Trip was seeping through, Admiral Gardener sure did not notice.

"I apologise, my first officer and I reviewed the candidates that were on my mind from the engineering crew on board and we decided to take you. Given that fact you've not been in space, you have a good working record."

"Thank you, when do you need me to start?"

"I'd like you to over see the ship's refit, you'll be joining the skeleton crew in three days. I want updates as soon as possible

* * *

Three months later, 

October 12, 2157

Jon got out of the shuttle-pod in bay 1, Rhiannon was waiting for him, she stood on the ramp 'till he reached her and she followed him out of the shuttle bay,

"Good afternoon Captain, I trust your holiday was good." She greeted as she handed him a PADD.

He watched her through the corner of his eyes as he read the contents of the PADD; she was formal and terse much worse than Malcolm in the first year,

She reeled off on the things that had been taken care, without looking at him, he thought in dismay that he had to break open another person from a shell, he hoped that she'd relax sometime soon.

After he looked around the ship. He went back to his room, and spent the rest of the day there looking at through the reports. Doctor Phlox came on board and he went to say hello, they talked for a while and he went back to his ready room, he liked being on board earlier than the rest of the crew, because he could dress casually and walk around his ship bare foot.

That night he took his bottle of whiskey with him to the observation lounge, and began the process of drinking on his own, he only intended to have a glass or two and watch the Earth rotate but two glasses became four and on and on, 'till he was drunk

"Captain…? Captain Archer...?" The voice was soft and quiet he turned towards the voice and all he saw was a blurred form in white. It was late and Rhiannon had come to the observation deck to read like she had gotten used to doing in the few months when she found the captain in a stupor. She looked at him and decided to drag him to his room, he was tall not overly large she'd make it without falling over herself,

"Alright," she said as she put his arm around her shoulders and pulled him up.

"Are you an angel?"

"An angel…?" Rhiannon smiled to herself, he was deliriously drunk, "Nope I'm not an angel."

"Who are you, then? I think you are 'cos you are all dressed in white."

"My hair gives that illusion to many a drunken sailor. Besides angels don't have white hair, they are like humans but with wings"

"How do you know that?

"I don't know... it's just a thought I suppose."

"If not and angel then a siren, maybe? A space siren: here to lead me and my ship to our doom in a cluster of black holes."

"If you put it that way, I think I like being an angel more than a siren."

Jon tried to search his foggy mind but he couldn't come up with anyone he knew with white hair, so he figured it was a dream. They reached his room and he gave her his key code, the door opened and she dragged him to his bed but he pulled her down with him,

"Stay," he said softly

"I would but you wouldn't like me tomorrow."

"Who cares about tomorrow?"

"You more than anybody I know." She said as she began to pull away, she didn't need her telepathy to know what he wanted but he pulled her back as she tried to get away and turned so he was on top of her,

"Please stay," he said before he kissed her

"But Captain I don't think this is wise." She said breathlessly, his need was overwhelming her but he thought she was a dream, but did she really want to fight him or did she want to stay?

"I'm not feeling the need to be wise right now" he replied as he trailed kisses down her neck, all he was thinking about was how great she smelled so different from T'Pol, for a dream she felt so real.

She decided this really did not need to get any worse, she psychokinetically lifted him off her and she touched his temple lightly and he fell asleep. Then she plunged into his mind. His was not the first mind she had entered; she noticed that minds had similar themes, earth, fire, wind, water. His was water; she saw a lighthouse in the distance, she skimmed the water wanting to savour the coolness. When she reached the light house, she propelled herself to the top. She looked out in the distance, she saw cliffs tall ones, she smiled to herself, a non telepath still protecting his heart from the outside world with towering cliffs and dark trenches. She turned to the task at hand; she did not want to stay long. She found what she was looking for, a box materialised in her hands and she locked it in, with three runic dials, and then flung it out into the ocean. She watched it sink; when she was satisfied she left. She tucked him in and went to get his bottle and put it back in its place.

Jon woke up, his head groggy from last night's drinking, he frowned the last thing he remembered was moping in the D-deck observation lounge, he tried hard to remember how he got to his room but there was nothing. Hopefully he made it to his room without embarrassing himself, especially with the new engineer; he really did not want her to think he was an alcoholic.


	2. Comparison and Space Sirens

Comparisons and the Unmasked Space Siren

Pleiades star cluster, November 31st 2157

Captain's personal log, November 31st 2157. We've were in a hyperspace wormhole, as Rhiannon called it, for a few days now, and we seemed to be nowhere near getting out. Everyone was tense and frustrated except it seemed Rhiannon. It was like being in a wormhole taking us farther and farther away from our pre-determined course did not bother her. The repair work on the engines was not going as well or as speedily as I liked, so I took my frustration out on Rhiannon. After I finished ranting, she blinked pretty slowly, and just turned around and left my ready room. A few minutes later, I heard she sent all the engineers out of the engine room and locked herself in. No amount of pleading or commanding brought her out; there was only silence for three hours. Then she emerged and headed to the bridge took over the helm from Travis and flew us at an incredible warp 5.89 out of the wormhole back on our planned course. After which she bid me good evening and went for dinner and went to bed. I was amazed. I still feel guilty for yelling at her considering it was her first time in space and no amount of tests and simulations can prepare you for the real thing. I just hope that we can be friends.

* * *

Rhiannon was frustrated beyond words. It was a month and a half into their voyage, and they'd been chased around the quadrant by xenophobic aliens. During the chase, fell into a wormhole that planned on flinging them deep into the quadrant. During the attack, the nacelles had been hit which was why they did not have power to pull out of the worm hole. Everything seemed to have gone wrong, and she didn't seem to fix it fast enough or as good as Trip. She had to temporarily modify the ship's engine to be able to change course and bring them back on track. To top it off, she had a headache from receiving constant mind and spoken chatter, which in close quarters to eighty-three people was no picnic. It was a wonder how she survived on Earth without going mad. She ended up collapsing like a tonne of bricks into bed each night and retreating into her innermost self for some peace. Her relations with the crew weren't going well thanks to her telepathy and years of being constantly alone or with family. She didn't even know how she made friends with Elena. She'd blown off Lieutenant Sato's invitation to watch a film, sob fest love stories were not her type of movie. She liked movies with wizards and dragons or giant robots. Heavens, she sounded like a child even to herself. All in all, it was the usual new guy stuff. Who was she kidding? She was not fitting in, or she wasn't trying hard enough. 

But today something was different, she felt like a by-stander watching events unfold, and she was too weak to stop them. Her heart was thundering and her face muscles seem taut and her teeth were grinding. She went to the mess hall to get a cup of earl grey and took along with her to see Doctor Phlox.

"Good morning, Lieutenant Commander. Don't tell me you are here for another headache relief."

"Yes, Doctor if it is not too much trouble." She replied coldly.

"Are you sure there's nothing else bothering you? We can talk about this you know." he asked as prepared the hypospray.

"All I want is a relief from this headache. I did not come for psychobabble." He heard the splintering of ceramic and he turned to her. Hot team dripped from her hand, in which she help shards of the ceramic mug she was holding, some of them were on the floor.

Phlox looked into her eyes, he saw her normally light grey eyes were black and her pupils were not dilated

"Damn," she said and she walked out.

"Oh my, how rude." Phlox commented, at least when the Captain refused his help he did it with a modicum of respect.

The rest of the Rhiannon's morning was spent barking orders at everyone. At least than, they dared not challenge her.

At lunch, Phlox over heard some of the engineering staff complain about her sudden change in attitude. Maybe it was time the Captain knew about this.

Archer was being briefed about the situation from T'Pol in his ready room,

"It seems that the Lieutenant Commander has become mentally disturbed or has become very irate. The engineering crew have noted a complete change in attitude. When I tried to talk to her about it she told me to… 'Fuck off'. I think you should talk to her."

Just as he was about to reply the comm. rang.

"Phlox to Captain Archer."

"Go ahead."

"Captain, may I have a word with you in sickbay, it's important."

"I'll be with you in a moment," He cut off the connection and turned to T'Pol, "It's probably one of those days but speaking to you rudely is inexcusable, I'll talk to her after I talk to Phlox."

He found the doctor in his office, "What's up Doc?"

"It's the Lieutenant Commander."

"Not again. T'Pol just told me about that. Do you know what's wrong with her?"

"I believe she's stressed over something. I asked Ensign Young to take readings of her for me and he said she nearly crushed his bones when she caught his hand. Luckily he got some readings, enough to show that she is completely stressed out. She's even worse at handling it than you are."

"Alright I'll talk to her, and get her to talk to you about what's bothering her."

"I believe I should go with you." For some reason he felt this might get ugly. So he loaded a hypospray with a strong sedative, and followed the Captain to Main Engineering. It was so quiet except for Rhiannon scathing words laying more on the tension. Everyone looked relieved to see the Captain.

"Lieutenant I want to talk to you."

She turned sharply to his voice, Archer was taken aback he saw the anger clearly. She walked stiffly towards him.

"Lieutenant Commander Worth if you are angry about something; I suggest resolving it with whoever-

"You want to know what's wrong with me. Well, it's being compared to Commander Tucker all the time… Trip did not do it like this. The Commander did it that way. You're not doing it right Commander Tucker did it like this. The commander, the commander, the commander," Jon felt static build up. The hairs on his arms and at the back of his neck were rising up.

The loose tendrils on Rhiannon's hair were in the air, "Well I am not Commander Charles Trip Tucker the third, I am Rhiannon Worth and I am different. I work differently. My-"

Before she finished she slumped to the floor. Behind her was Dr. Phlox holding his hypospray,

"I thought it was time I stepped in." he said.

She opened he eyes to see Dr. Phlox peering at her.

"I thought you'd be awake soon." He said. He saw her eyes were not creepily black anymore.

She tried to sit up but found she was restrained, "Could you remove the restraints or do you want me to remove it for you."

"How? Even T'Pol can't break free of those restraints."

Without a change of expression she said, "I am not T'Pol. But I do need to pee."

"Oh…sorry." He said as he set her free, she went to the ladies' and returned and took a bio bed. She plumped up a pillow, and covered herself with a sheet.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"I'm over it now. I no longer care what they think of my skill or work style. I know that I'm good and that's good enough for me. And now sleep calls. Goodnight, Doctor Phlox." After a brief pause, she said, "I'm sorry I was rude to you this morning."

"Apology accepted, and if it is worth anything I think you are a fine engineer."

All he got was silence.

* * *

He was under water and swimming deeper. He was searching for something. But what, his mind asked as he dove deeper. He saw something at the bottom and went to pick it up. A box. He tried to pry it open but it wouldn't budge. There was a set of concentric circles with Nordic runes on them. He started turning them but it wouldn't open. He woke up frustrated. It seemed to be a recurring dream. He wondered why it felt so important to him to remember. And every time he had this dream he was no closer to opening the box. At least now he remembered what the runes looked like. He could draw up a list of combinations that could be tried. Everyone noticed his distraction. He seemed be going between staring off into space then typing stuff on his PADD. 

"Captain," T'Pol called.

"Hmm…?" he answered absent-mindedly.

"Captain you were looking forward to seeing this star cluster."

"Hmm."

T'Pol was puzzled; he had been so excited to see the star cluster called the Pleiades he'd even told her the Greco-Roman story of the Seven Sisters which the cluster was usually called.

He looked up for a moment and got off his chair, heading for his ready room, "Make sure to take good pictures." He said as he entered. The bridge crew look at themselves in confusion.

That night, he dreamt again this time armed and ready. He finally unlocked it. As the box dissolved in a myriad of bubbles, the memory he unlocked brought a shock to his system. Rhiannon woke suddenly. She felt woozy. Her mental lock on the memory of that night was broken and he remembered. She sighed, nothing ever stayed buried.

The next morning, Archer came in brooding. He entered the bridge and immediately went to his ready room with T'Pol following close behind with reports from the day before.

She found him sitting in his chair staring at the window.

He turned when he heard the door slide close,

"Morning T'Pol what's up?"

"Just some reports for you to look through."

He collected the PADDs from her and went back to staring at the window

"Is something wrong, Captain? You seem pensive"

"Nothing's wrong. I just remembered something."

"Does it have anything to do with your distraction yesterday?"

"Yes."

"Do you wish to talk about it?"

"No, but thanks."

"If that's all."

"T'Pol please arrange for a shuttle pod to be prepared I'm going take a closer look at the cluster."

When she left, he called engineering, a crewman picked up the call. He asked to speak to Rhiannon. She came on,

"Good morning Captain,"

"Lieutenant Commander, I want you to meet me in shuttle bay one in ten minutes."

"Yes Captain."

He stood at the window staring out into space. He remembered how nice she was to him. He'd called her and angel then a siren. She'd laughed and took him to bed. He did not want her to leave, and then he'd kissed her after her protesting everything went black. He felt so horrible; he could not believe he tried to sleep with his new chief engineer.

He emerged from his ready room,

"The shuttle-pod is ready, Captain."

"Great, you have the bridge."

"Are you going alone?"

"No, I'm taking Worth." With that he left.

T'Pol masked her disappointment well. She had been looking forward to seeing the cluster close up with the Captain and maybe their friendship could be rebuilt. She mentally chastised herself; emotions were getting the better of her; she'd need to meditate longer tonight.

Worth was already waiting for him at the shuttle pod.

"Get in, you are going with me."

"Doesn't the Commander usually follow you on missions like this?"

"Yes but I want to talk to you away from the ship, so please get in."

* * *

"It was a bit odd today on the bridge." Travis said. Him, Malcolm and Hoshi were having lunch in the mess hall and discussing the morning's events. 

"Yup." Malcolm replied as he fought with his cherry tomato,

"May I join you?" they looked up to see Doctor Phlox smiling down at them.

"Sure, Doctor." Hoshi said

"We're just talking about the captain taking the Lieutenant Commander out on the survey of the star cluster instead of Commander T'Pol."

"The Captain has not been able to talk to the Lieutenant commander Worth since the incident. He's using this as an opportunity to set things right."

"Yeah, it does sound like something the Captain would do." Malcolm said, nodding

Then Hoshi said "Pity, Commander T'Pol was a little disappointed."

"How do you know that? She seemed fine to me." Malcolm asked puzzled, T'Pol did not seem any different to him

"She was probably thinking of Commander Tucker." Travis suggested

"I'm a woman and women know these things."

"What ever you say…"

* * *

The silence echoing in the little shuttle pod as it wandered about the cluster, 

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Archer said

"Yes." Rhiannon replied monotonously

"Look Rhiannon," He began, "I want to apologise to you for they way I handled the situation with the Kyroax, it was your first time under fire, I should have been a bit more patient. I do think you are a good engineer, the way you got us out of the wormhole and back on course was quite amazing, even T'Pol hasn't figured out how you did it yet."

"You actions are understandable, too many things were going wrong at once, I accept your apology. Can we go back now?"

"I also wanted to talk to you about the night I returned to the ship when we where at space dock."

"What happened?"

"You know what I am talking about. How did you stop me?"

She sat facing the console unmoving then she said, "Vulcan nerve pinch." She lied.

"I don't remember feeling any pain."

"The Vulcan who taught me said there'd be less pain but a deeper blackout and I experienced it first hand.

"I'm sorry for what I tried to do to you."

"You were drunk."

"That's no excuse. Look Rhiannon, I want us to be friends."

"It was nothing special. I do not understand why you feel guilty, nothing happened." After a moment's pause, she said, "I suggest we finish the survey, or you can come back and continue with the Commander tomorrow."

"No, we'll finish it." And both remained silent for the rest of their time together lost in their thoughts.


	3. For the Want of Heroics

Unknown Planet September 26th, 2157

Rhiannon groaned inwardly when she saw Commander T'Pol heading down the ramp. She didn't like the woman or should she say female Vulcan. Rhiannon always felt like shoving her out an airlock whenever she got all 'know-it-all' on them. She was just about to resign her fate when the Commander was called away, and a few minutes later returned with the Captain. It turned out he decided he wanted to lead the rookies on the little camping trip to the Amazon-like planet they were in orbit over.

He asked T'Pol to stay on the ship. She looked like she did not like the idea but she held her tongue.

The reason he replaced T'Pol was because he wanted to talk to Rhiannon in a relaxed setting, and camping was as relaxed as it could get. But she had totally taken control and told him it was nothing special. Surely he should be relieved that she had not gone on a hysterical fit and taken actions against him. She sat talking with the rest if the landing team as they made the descent. They landed, picked out their gear and made camp a few yards away from the shuttle pod.

They walked through the jungle in silence, securing the perimeter. She scanned the area. Something came up but it disappeared as soon as it appeared and she felt like they were being watched.

Jon saw her frown and asked, "Is something wrong?"

"I don't know, something came up on the scanner but it disappeared before I could ascertain what it was."

After a moment of silence, Jon turned to her and said, "So how is space travel treating you?."

"Okay so far, sir."

"Is there anything you want to talk to me about that, you haven't found time to do so?."

"No, sir. I think we should return to camp."

That evening she sat across him reading a book and talking to everyone but him. Crewmen Jones and Tyler we trying to out do each other in comical stories. That night she went to bed early. He took first watch.

Rhiannon could not sleep. She could feel there was something out there. She checked her watch; it was late in the late night/early morning part of the day. She got up to take her turn watching. She came out of her tent but could not find the captain at the camp site, so she did a mind scan for him. He was east of her, securing the perimeter, so she headed that way.

Jon saw her approached and braced himself for another encounter with his mysterious chief engineer.

"Captain, you should get some sleep. We have a long day ahead of us."

"Yeah,"

She stopped mid-stride, something was there watching them.

"What is it?" Archer asked

She felt it coming towards them. She reached for the captain but what ever it was lunged at the captain the two forms rolled in the dirt. Suddenly the ground gave way underneath the two wrestling bodies. She heard the captain's grunt of pain along with the beast's growl. Rhiannon ran to the hole.

"Are you alright?"

"I think so."

"The beast?"

Jon looked at the thing beside him; it was impaled by a stalagmite. In the dark he saw the outline of the animal; it was large and hairy, and it had a humped back.

He was incredibly lucky. "It's dead. They don't seem the take falling to well." He said lightly.

"Are you hurt? Can you feel your legs? Are you dizzy?"

Jon frowned. Before she asked that he had not thought about it, but his side hurt and he could not feel his legs.

Rhiannon frowned, he did not reply. She was worried, she took out her communicator and tried to call the others but there was no answer, "Captain, sit tight I'm going to get help."

She raced to back to the camp and woke everyone briefed them on the situation and got them packing.

She went to the shuttle-pod and got ropes and canvas, she returned to the camp to check on the other crewmen before she went for the Captain. Two crewmen Tyler and Johnson went along with her to rescue the Captain.

She was lowered into the crevice while they watched out for the beasts. Jon was barely conscious. He felt someone move him, and then he was being wrapped in a body bag. He heard the snap of the clips attached to the hooks being closed and the hooks attached. Then he felt warmth in his back. It made his body pulsate and he began to feel drowsy. He tried to stay awake to try to reach the top and help protect the young crewmen, but his eyes closed and he went into a dreamless sleep.

Rhiannon breathed a sigh of relief. His eyes did not open when she was healing him. They ran back to the shuttle amidst a fire fight with the attacking beasts. When they reached the shuttle pod, Rhiannon sensed something was wrong, some one was mission.

"Did you see, Marilee out there?" Davison asked

Marilee was the youngest in their group. A young black girl who was wide eyed and up for anything,

"No. Why?" Rhiannon asked as sense of foreboding creeping on her

"She said she dropped her PADD and adamantly wanted to get it." Davidson said

"And you let her go alone. Have you gone mad?"

"I'm sorry, Commander. I wasn't thinking-

Rhiannon sighed heavily, "I hope you were at least smart enough to call the ship for back up and to apprise them of the situation."

He fell quiet.

Then Tyler spoke up "Look, Marilee is still out there. We need to get her back."

"I'll go." She said as she grabbed a pistol, "Try to hail the ship, and apprise them of our situation."

She ran out of the pod into the forest. She became a blur, and she headed to where she sensed the highest concentration of the beasts and Marilee. She was upon them before they knew it. She climbed up a tree and leapt into their gathering. It was the first time she got a good look at the beasts; they were tall and large. They had humped backs which made their head tuck into their shoulders. Their body was a mixture of hair and scale. Their arms were long and they had bear-like claws except their claws were longer. The pistol hit everything it was aimed at. She landed on her feet and found Marilee lying on the ground bruised and battered her clothes torn. Rhiannon picked her up and carried her on her back and broke in to a run. She raced into the forest back to the pod, but the beasts followed blocking her path to the shuttle pod. So she put Marilee, down and took off her uniform and gave it to the shivering girl.

"Put it on. Close your eyes and lie still. Once I call out run north-east. You'll find the shuttle pod," she whispered. Marilee nodded her understanding. Rhiannon stood upright, and she plucked a knife from her thigh holster. She held the knife out and it transformed into a sword. Then she went in for the attack. She drew them to her like a moth to a flame. They converged around her and dove in for the kill. She jumped into the air with her sword pointing downward. She made her first kill as her sword went through the skull one of the beasts. She used the falling body to propel her self upward. She called Marilee to run. As Marilee shot off one of the beast saw and took after her. But Rhiannon was quicker; her sword broke into pieces attached to an elastic chain and went after it. The chain link sword looped around it's neck, and she pulled taking it's head off. One off the beasts clawed at her back, taking a chunk of skin off. She cried out in pain. Her teary eyes turned to he assailant. Her gritted teeth bared, she leapt into the air and sliced it in half. Her breathing was ragged and her body was feeling the strain but she wasn't done yet. She summoned the energy she knew was inside. Adrenaline pumped through her veins. It was a long time since she felt like this.

* * *

When T'Pol got the news that the Captain had been hurt her heart nearly burst out of her chest, she had told him it was unwise but after five years and counting of working together, she'd known when to stop arguing with him; when he'd made his mind up. Somehow she could not help thinking if his going along with the new crew was about the Commander. 

"Lieutenant Commander Reed…

"I'm on my way, ma'am."

Reed leapt out of the shuttle-pod before it landed and ran to the other shuttle pod.

"What happened? Where's the Captain?"

"He's here but the Lt. Commander and Crewman Jones are still missing, Commander Worth went in search of Marilee but has not returned." Ensign Tyler

Just then, Marilee appeared. She was half running half staggering. She was followed by one of the beasts Rhiannon did not see leave. They set their phase pistols to kill and shot at it. It did not go down but they kept at it but it raced back into the forest, when it was gone they rushed to Marilee.

"Where's the lieutenant commander?"

She could do no more than point in the direction which she came from and faint.

"Take her and the Captain back to the ship. We'll find Worth."

Reed motioned to the rest of the security team that came with him. They followed.

Rhiannon leaned on her sword trying to calm herself. The beasts lay dead around her in various states of dismemberment. There was blood all over her, her blood, their blood. The smell made her nauseous. She stood upright intent on heading to the shuttle pod in hope they were still safe. She keeled over. She saw the world tilt in front of her and everything went black.

When Malcolm and his team found her, she was lying in a pool of blood and mud.

"Wow whatever happened here must have been something." One of the security team said

"And they seemed to have got the worst of it," Malcolm said referring to the beasts as he scanned her body, "she's still alive. let's get her to Phlox."

* * *

Phlox was shocked when they wheeled Rhiannon in. 

"What happened?"

"They same things that got the Captain got to her but they weren't as lucky." Malcolm explained

"I see. Put her on the examination table."

Phlox stood at the monitor a frown on usually jovial face. Something was off, he could tell but what? He looked at his patient, who are you, Rhiannon Worth? He turned to his other two patients. They were stable and healing well.

"Doc…?" he heard the captain call

"Captain, how are you feeling?"

"Like I was hit by an eighteen wheeler, is everyone okay?"

"All of the away team survived. You, Crewman Jones, and Lieutenant Commander where the only ones who were wounded."

"Wounded but Worth was fine when I fell."

"Crewman Jones went missing and she went after her."

"I couldn't feel my-" he stopped and frowned but it was replaced by intense relief. He could feel his legs and everything else.

"What captain?"

"When I fell, I couldn't feel anything. I thought I was paralysed."

"That was the first thing I checked when I was told you had a fall. Your spine was good as new."

"Well, it's time to go to my bed." He said as he sat up.

"Captain, please lie down. You are not fully healed, and before you say, Hoshi's taking care of Porthos."

He turned looked at Rhiannon on the bed next to him, her skin was pale and the wounds were not healing.

"How did she get that way?"

"Reed said she tackled a couple of the beasts that attacked you."

"How is she?"

"Her healing is slow. She was only exhausted when she was brought in. nothing serious other than the wound from the claws. She's been asleep since."

"So everybody else is okay?"

"Yes Captain."

He sighed with relief. At least nobody died this time, he thought to himself. He frowned. It was a little hot in the sickbay,

"Doc, could you decrease the room temperature. It's hot in here."

* * *

Gymnopedie No. 1 played on the sound system of the observation lounge. She laid stomach down reading a book. She heard the doors slide open. She sat up to find out who it was. It was the Captain and his dog. Jon met Rhiannon's gaze. 

"Good Evening, Lieutenant Commander, I didn't expect to see you here."

"I was catching up on some reading."

She hadn't expected to see him anytime soon either. She had only been let out of sickbay today by a very confused Phlox. She could have been out of there sooner, but she did not want Phlox to probe deeper than he had. So she'd suppressed her healing powers. She got up preparing to leave.

"You don't have to leave on my account." Jon said

"It's time for me to go to bed." She said. She only needed short bursts of sleep except when she was healing. She stopped and knelt down and said hello to Porthos who lavished the attention. She smiled at the dog's antics and she rose,

"Good night, Captain." She said, and she left.

"Um, before you go, I wanted to thank you for saving my life and those of the crewmen with us on that planet. Malcolm told me you took some of the beasts out with a commando knife."

"I don't like guns, too slow."

Jon frowned, pistols are too slow? "I see. But you do know you shouldn't have that with you. I think you should give it to Malcolm to keep."

"I will." She said. She definitely was not giving her 'to-zan' away.

Jon got a cup of cocoa and went to the sofa and began to read the overdue reports, this music playing is nice, he thought to himself as he settled down. Rhiannon stood outside the lounge and contemplated. Okay, so he and everybody else compared her to Trip. He'd apologized, so it didn't matter anymore, she sighed, sometimes she was such a baby, and she blamed it on her human side of the gene pool. She re-entered the lounge. Jon heard the door open and saw Rhiannon at the doors. She walked towards him, and leapt over the sofa and landed seated beside him,

"I apologize for being such a nutter and a ninny. I'd love it if we are friends. You'll realise I'm not as block-headed as I make out to be. Though on one condition."

"And what's that?"

"I can ask you any question, no matter how personal."

Jon frowned. He looked at her shiny grey eyes and he said, "Sure. And I can do the same with you?"

"Sure," she replied without thinking about it. She leapt to her feet and said a cheerier goodnight and skipped out.


	4. A Little sip of Wine or a Whole Damn Bar...

A LITTLE SIP OF WINE OR A WHOLE DAMN BARREL

Captain's Log,

On our new course, everything has been going smoothly, friendly locals all the way. We have come to a stop at Enhara where we find the Columbia in orbit…

Enhara, a thriving metropolis of a planet; it was an example of what Earth was going to be like in a few hundred years; people of different races in the hustle and bustle of the world. Enhara was not exactly party central but the two ships arrived at Enhara's party time, Harvest moon festival. A blue moon, one of Enhara's seven moons, which heralds the festival, sits in the Enharan sky day and night for two weeks. The planet was not tilted on its axis, so the weather was pretty much the same everywhere. At the end of festival all seven moons will appear in the night sky. To commemorate the event; the all important space race, carnivals and impromptu parties are held. The space race was the only thing that held Rhiannon's attention. Her ears perked up anytime it was mentioned.

The captain was a little excited, why? Rhiannon's telepathic powers could not garner. She thought maybe he was excited to see Commander Tucker again. T'Pol on the other hand felt apprehensive, though she's good at not showing it. Rhiannon, on the other hand was curious to meet the person they think is superior to her in engineering skills. While meeting and greeting the local folks, the officials suggested they enter the race Enharans hosted every year during the harvest celebrations. Pilots and Engineers from the quadrant and beyond came for this race.

Rhiannon asked the Captain if she could enter, and to her surprise he agreed.

She planned to ask Travis to be her pilot or co-pilot which ever the case may be, probably after she have plied him with lots of strong Enharan wine.

Travis agrees whilst making fun of her for needing to get him drunk, instead of just giving him an order.

That afternoon, Rhiannon left the Captain in the capable hands of the Enharan officials and Malcolm. Travis and Rhiannon headed to the race registration offices. The registration clerk asked Rhiannon and Travis to choose a racing pod.

The Enharan Race association gave the entrants the racing pods of their choice out of the hundred they had in their hangers, but the engines were up to the racers themselves. The race wasn't only a test of speed and skill but of engineering ingenuity.

Rhiannon and Travis walked leisurely across the hanger where the racing pods were housed.

"Everyone seems excited to meet the crew of the Colombia." Rhiannon said

"Yeah, we are the first human ships in this side of town, so I guess it's nice to meet each other on the way." Travis replied

"It must be nice for you guys to see your friend, Commander Tucker, again."

"Uh-huh, I've kinda missed him. Not that you aren't any fun, Commander."

"Whatever. The Captain seems the most excited. He's getting a two for one deal." Rhiannon said as she took a close look at a racing pod

"Lieutenant Commander, we've been here for hours could we just pick one. I promised to meet Hoshi for lunch today."

"Hoshi's with Malcolm, I'm sure she won't miss you. We have to get a perfect racing pod. We could just pick one and it's too small, or you can't do anything with it because it could break apart under pres-," she stopped when she saw it. What she had been looking for, and it was awesome, "-sure." She turned to the mechanic with them and yelled as she jumped and pointed, "That's it. That's the one I want."

"What do you mean by that?" he asked but she was not listening anymore.

Travis followed her and saw the racing pod that had caught her attention. Could he even call it a pod?

"I wouldn't advice you to take the Aurora. It'll be better if you take anyone of the others, that ship is temperamental. No one can understand how to put an engine in or even fly it. So it's never been used" The mechanic with them said.

The racing pod was silver. It had two pairs of wings, with one pair on top of the other. The top smaller pair of wings pointed outward and the larger pair below turned inwards. She climbed up the step ladder to look into the cockpit, a two-seater with lovely leg room. The glass had a multi-coloured tint to it to filter bright light from stars. She pressed the button to open the cock pit and slid into the co-pilot seat.

"No one has my skill," She said, "Travis, we've found our pod."

"That was obvious from the way you were drooling all over it." Travis said without thinking, he looked at her sheepishly. She only smiled and said,

"Mock all you want but this ether rider, my young one, is going to win us the race."

"It's an ether rider, even I didn't know that." The mechanic said thoughtfully

"Mechanic," she called as she put her hand in her pocket and retrieved a black card and handed it to the mechanic, who took it with obvious glee, "enter the Aurora under the name of Enterprise. Everyone's going down. Heh-heh-heh."

Travis looked at her. She was a bit creepy with that glint in her eye.

"Travis you can go for your shopping spree now. The rest is up to me."

"Sure thing, see you later."

As he left he heard her call the mechanic to give her the ships schematics…

* * *

Travis met Hoshi in the city square,

"Where's Reed?"

"He decided he wanted to go with the Captain. Commander Tucker and Captain Hernandez were with them. Shall we?"

"Sure."

She put her hand in the crook of his arm, and they walked into the city.

* * *

After Rhiannon finished registering, she went to see Varon. He was a friend of the family, and he was the only one who could find parts to build a charged particle converter engine for the Aurora's slim wings.

It was late in the afternoon, and the market in the capital city was sweltering. There were lots of people milling about; filling her head with their thoughts. Those wanting to cheat unsuspecting tourists, and unsuspecting tourists hoping they wouldn't be cheated. But none of that mind noise bothered her in her excitement as she made her way to Varon's store hoping no one from Enterprise saw her. She already had all of the crew's mind signatures. With a breath of relief, no one was in the vicinity. She entered Baron's store,

Varon, a tall burly Enharan emerged from the back of the store.

"May I help-" he began but stopped when he saw her.

"Rhiannon, little one." He exclaimed as he came over to her and hugged her lifting her off the ground, "How are you, child? I haven't seen you in years."

"I am well Varon. Please put me down."

"I can see that you are well. Come. Sit. How is your mother? I haven't seen her in ages."

"Fine I suppose. I haven't seen her in ages either."

"But I thought- aren't you here with her?"

"No, she shipped me back to Earth and I have been there for a long time now."

"So how did you get here? You came with the explorers from Earth. They are all over the news and everyone's lips. Like they've never seen a couple of humans before. Let me get you a cold drink, it's very hot today." He went to the back room in his shop and came back with two glasses and a jug.

"Nura fruit, I remember it's your favourite." He said as he sat down and poured her a glass. She put up her hands in prayer position and touched her forehead murmuring her thanks, and Varon returned the gesture, "Oh I forgot, gurundi cakes. Let me go and get them." Rhiannon smiled as he went back to get them. She'd forgotten how nice Varon was. Each customer was treated like royalty, but she'd always known he had a special spot for her mother. He returned with the cakes and she took a piece.

"So what brings you here? Shouldn't you be exploring with your Captain?"

"Nothing is new to me on Enhara. Besides, if I went with them, I'll know more about the places we go than I should."

"Good point."

"Anyway, we are on shore leave and I entered the Galactic Race."

"Have you chosen a racing pod?"

She nodded as she swallowed her cake she pulled out the pod's schematics she had received from the mechanic at the garage.

"Ooh-ho-ho, an ether-rider."

"Apparently no one has used the Aurora. They find the wings too slim to put boosters in."

"Charged particle converters."

"My thoughts exactly, and a powerful impulse engine."

Varon nodded, "You made a good choice, little one. An ether rider will give you an advantage. I'll order the parts for you this evening. I'll tell my suppliers it's urgent, and I'll get it by morning tomorrow. Comeback then you'll have your engine."

They talked some more, and she got up to leave. He gave her a big hug outside his shop before she left.

"That was great. Now we have to find our way back to meet the captain and the others."

"Don't we have to meet them back in the city square?"

"Yes but-" Hoshi paused mid-sentence. She dragged Travis into a corner.

"What!"

"Look."

He took a gander at where she pointed. He saw Lt. Cmdr. Worth in a hug with an Enharan.

"Maybe that's how they greet,"

"Um, we did not hug the officials when we met them."

"Or say good bye, look she's leaving. He's holding a Starfleet issue PADD."

"Do you think she's a spy for the Enharans?"

Rhiannon sensed someone familiar around. She looked to her left, and she was about to head there to check who it was when something stronger hit. She sensed an Aesir in the vicinity. she frowned. The Aesir and all other super-naturals in the Universe were like beacons to each other. Beacons were unique to each faction and amongst factions unique to each person, and she was thinking this person was familiar…

"I don't know. She's looking towards us; I think she can see us."

"Relax she can't see us here." She peered round the corner, "Crap, I think she can." Hoshi exclaimed as she jumped back, "What should we do?"

"I don't know. You brought us here, think of something." Travis said as he peered around the corner, "Wait she's leaving. She seems kinda in a hurry."

"Let's follow her." Hoshi leapt up and dragged him with her

"What! Hoshi—no." but he was dragged along.

* * *

This person was suppressing their power. Something people like her did when they wanted to stay under the radar from their enemies. How she sensed this person over the din of other minds in the market puzzled her but she went after them. She eventually came to a quiet part of the town slums in front of a bookshop. She smiled, typical. Aesir loved books. Reading them and writing them. That's why they created the Great Library of the Universe, which housed records of happenings in the various galaxies, encyclopaedias, and works of fiction and non-fiction of each world ever to exist. A wind chime tingled, heralding her entrance but no one came to the counter. She stepped inside letting the door close by itself. She turned to find a gun with a really big barrel in her face. Another thing about the Aesir; they were not all humanoid. This person, Gaugaj Doty was a Suverian. They had tentacles for hair, which at times had a life of their own when a Suverian was attacked.

"Doty?"

"So Rhiannon, it is you they have sent to kill me. I will not make this easy for you."

"Doty, I am not here to kill you." she said as she moved the gun barrel away from her chest.

"How did you expect me to believe that after what you did to Huriah?" he asked putting the gun barrel back in front of her.

"Who was doing something unbalanced to the children we were taking care of that I still don't understand now. Please Doty, you have to believe me. I do not wish to do anyone harm. I only came here because I sensed your suppression." She said pushing the gun away again.

"Open your mind to me." He said and she did. He saw she was telling the truth. With a sigh of relief he put down his gun, "I apologise, Rhiannon. I am weary of this."

She put her hand on his shoulder, "It's alright. I understand."

She looked at her watch, "I have to go, I'll come back to see you tomorrow morning. I think you should meditate. It will keep your strength up, and help you suppress you powers even better."

He nodded, "I have been feeling a little stressed. We shall talk when you return tomorrow."

Rhiannon peered outside the door, she sensed Hoshi and Travis hiding somewhere around there. She went back in smiling. She went to the bookshelves and picked up a book on Enharan history, an atlas of the Enharan world, and an atlas of the Enharan sky,

"Why do you need these? You already know about all this." Doty asked as he wrapped the books up for her.

"Actually, I'm being followed by my crewmates."

"Crewmates? Oh, Enterprise. Well I'll see you later then." He said as he handed her parcel to her. She stepped out of the bookshop and headed where Hoshi and Travis were hiding.

"She's coming." Travis announced in hushed tones

"What do you mean she's coming? This hiding place was better that the last one." Hoshi scoffed. She was taken aback when Rhiannon appeared in front of them.

"Hi, kids. Following me?"

"No. we were kinda lost so we followed you to see if you knew where to go." Travis lied. She looked like an angry older sister who'd just caught them red-handed. Hoshi frowned and spoke up.

"We saw you hug that Enharan in the market,"

"Ahh, so you were following me then. He liked the feel of my huge boobs," She said as a matter-of-factly, "They're squishy, you know. Aliens are such queers."

Which made Travis look down there; they were big, he noted. Hoshi nudged him. "But you gave him a Starfleet PADD." Hoshi said

"Which I will retrieve tomorrow. He sells the engines for our racing pod. The mechanic back at the hanger recommended him to me. He has to order parts for it so I gave him the schematics."

Travis looked at Hoshi as if saying 'are you satisfied now?'

"I can't believe you guys think I am trying to endanger Enterprise or Earth."

"We didn't say that."

"But that's what this is about isn't it?"

They were silent.

"Well, all's well that ends well. No worries." She looked at her watch, "You know there still some time before we need to get back to the ship. Let's go shopping."

Raexs watched Rhiannon leave Doty's shop from a roof across the street from the shop. She seemed worried. Once she was out of range he jumped down and went to see Doty. The chimes chimed as he entered.

"Sorry, we are closed- Oh, Raexs, what are you doing here?"

"I was following Rhiannon."

"I see. I was about to meditate. Will you join me?" He asked as he locked the door to his shop,

"So why are you following Rhiannon?"

"Lillith asked me to."

"That woman, it must pain her so to be away from her little chick. They were inseparable."

"I know. Sometimes it feels like she's looking over my shoulder hoping I haven't tainted her daughter."

"Come now, you are an Aesir. You should know by now that we are not the prejudiced kind. I am sure it is because of your uniqueness she chose you to guard her daughter. Does Rhiannon even know you?"

"No. We never met."

"I am surprised she has not sensed you yet. She is very powerful."

"So am I, but she has a lot on her mind."

"Hmm. Finding out what happened to Huriah turn crazy and turn the children too. She would be surprised to find she did not save them from whatever he did to them."

* * *

Jon shifted his weight from one foot to another, and took a sip from his drink. Enharans were nice. They had drinking games, he noted with mild amusement. They had broken out this special wine in the middle of the party they were throwing for the Captains of both the Enterprise and the Columbia. Speaking of the Columbia, he wondered where Erica went to. They had both brought along their Number ones, which in her case was Trip. It was great seeing them both. Trip seemed to be enjoying being on the Columbia.

Tonight though, Trip seemed more eager to talk to T'Pol. Who could blame him? She looked great. She wore an ice blue dress under her Vulcan robes. The material was one of those sheeny shiny types that clung to everything. He supposed it was supposed to stay under her robes but the doormen pulled the robes off her as they entered. Trip could not stop looking at her. Who could blame him? Jon could not stop looking and her either.

He looked around for his friends, but they were no where to be seen. He guessed Trip was with T'Pol. But where was Erica? He began to move around but everything spun around him. Okay, what was that? He thought to himself. He looked at the blue wine in his hands. Yep, he'd had too much. He dropped his glass on a table, as he turned round he bumped into Erica.

"Hi Jon," she slurred

"Hi, Erica, have you seen T'Pol?"

"Who?"

"T'Pol, have you seen her?"

"I think she's with Trip. Who cares about the Vulcan? Come on, Jon. They said we could spend the night here."

Jon's head was still cloudy, and she was turning him on the way she pressed against him. He held onto her as he looked around for T'Pol. She was the only one who could fly the shuttle-pod. He was in no state for that.

T'Pol was sitting outside. She was hot. The Captain had been surrounded by females once they entered the party and her presence had been forgotten. She sighed in relief as the breeze cooled her. She should have asked if the drink she was given was alcoholic but when the captain drank it, she assumed it wasn't. She should have known better. Humans try anything once. Her clothes felt clammy. She had picked it because she had wanted him to notice her. Hoshi said it looked great. Lately, it seemed Lt. Comdr Worth was getting all his attention. she wanted to rip them off her. Maybe the captain could rip them off her. She frowned, where did that thought come from? Her hold on her emotions was weakening due to her intoxicated state.

She heard foot steps behind her. She turned to the sound and found Trip behind her.

"Hi."

"Good Evening commander."

"Are you alright? You seemed a bit flushed."

"I am fine. Was there something you wanted?"

"I've wanted to talk to you all evening. You look great."

"Thank you, but I am sure that's not what you want to say."

"I've missed you, T'Pol. I've thought a lot about it us, and I want us to get back together."

"That's just the alcohol talking."

"I'm serious, T'Pol, what we have is too good to throw away."

"We do not have it anymore. Besides it won't work, the Columbia and the Enterprise have two different paths?"

"We'd see each other when we return to Earth."

"That is unrealistic. If it did not work when we were together it would not work now."

"I don't wish to continue our relations" she said a little vehemently than intended, "Excuse me I have to find the captain we need to return to the ship."

"T'Pol, wait. Have you found someone else?"

She stopped to look at the hand that gripped her arm.

"Unhand me, Commander. I have not 'found someone else'. I am Vulcan. I am incapable of love." With that she retracted her arm and went to look for the Captain. She found him the way she left him, surrounded by attractive women including Captain Hernandez.

"Captain, it's time to go." He nodded and asked

"Where's Trip?" he asked. Trip appeared behind T'Pol. Trip moved to take Erica from Jon's hands.

"I'll take her back to the ship. See ya tomorrow." Trip said as he walked away with his Captain

"Let's go T'Pol." He managed to say without slurring. He walked slowly so he wouldn't stagger. They reached the shuttle-pod without incidence.

When the were settled in their seats, he asked her

"Since you aren't drunk, would you mind flying this thing?"

"I am sorry, Captain but I am intoxicated as well."

"But you don't drink."

She looked down at her hands.

"The Enharans offered to put us in a guest house for the night." She suggested

"Nah, I'd hate going back to the ship in the morning with my party clothes on."

T'Pol nodded in agreement.

"I think we need to call someone to come and pick us up." He said

"We could use the transporter."

"That sounds like a plan. We'd get some one to get the shuttle-pod tomorrow."

Jon called the Enterprise and arranged to be transported. T'Pol drifted of to sleep which was quite unusual. Jon supposed the Enharan wine was stronger that it looked though it tasted great, maybe he'd get some.

He tried to wake T'Pol but she was out like a light. He frowned; he definitely was not touching that wine again if it could take out a Vulcan like that. He lifted her from the chair, just before they were beamed to the ship. He thanked crewman who beamed them up, and headed for e-deck.

When he reached e-deck, he met Rhiannon ambling around listlessly as she rubbed her closed eyes with her fists. She opened T'Pol's door for him and gave him a thumbs up as she left saying something about raiding the fridge. He lay T'Pol on her bed and removed her shoes. He pulled her covers over her. He touched her hair and face. She looked so beautiful when she was asleep. He bent to kiss her head, hoping she wouldn't notice since she was drunk. But he felt a hand drag him in for a full blown kiss. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her up, as the kiss got deeper. It felt exquisite; he did not want it to stop. When they finally came up for air,

T'Pol said, "Stay with me."

Jon pulled back, "No, we both know what would happen if I stayed." He was torn. He wanted to stay, but tomorrow morning everything would be different and clearer to her. She'd be angry and run away from him. He'd feel like he took advantage of her state. It would be the best night of his life and the worst morning-after.

"I know; I want it to happen. Stay, please." She pleaded

Jon got up. He definitely was not getting Enharan wine on this ship, "That's the wine talking. Get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow." He said as he left. He leaned against the door when it closed, and sighed as he slid down to the ground. He looked up to see a hand held out to him. he looked higher. It was Rhiannon. He took her hand and pulled himself up. She walked with him to his room,

"So here we are again." He said.

"Don't worry; the same things don't happen to me twice." She said as the door to his room opened and he stepped in. she followed him in. Porthos trotted over to greet her. She carried the dog and rubbed it's head.

"So how did the party go?" she asked as she pulled the covers open.

"Great except we all got drunk on-" He said as she watched her

"Visitors' wine. Are you going to get in my arm is hurting?"

"I didn't ask you to tuck me in."

"You seemed like you needed some mothering. Get in." he did as he was told, Porthos leapt from her arms into the bed to the Captain

"Goodnight Captain." She said softly

"Aren't you going to ask me what happened?"

"Nope, it's none of my business." She said as she smiled, "I'm just around for moral support."

With that she exited his room.


	5. The Race

Y'hllo! Archer and his motley crew are properties of Paramount(i think). Rhiannon is mine.

* * *

The Race 

Gaugaj came out of meditation to find Rhiannon sitting drinking tea. He looked around; Raexs was nowhere to be found. He probably left before she arrived.

"How did you get here?"

"I teleported."

He was silent.

"So are you going to tell me what got you so scared?" She asked

"Do you have any understanding of what you carry in you?" He said ignoring her question

"No, but I can't now that I am exiled."

"You seem to be handling it well."

"It rears it's head on rare occasions." She said nonchalantly, "So are you going to tell me why an Aesir is hiding from other Aesir?"

"Any Aesir who finds me does not wish to do me harm."

"I found you, but you put a gun in my face."

Gaugaj sighed "Someone is destroying Aesir. They tried to get the First Elders, but unsuccessfully."

"So they are going for the Second Elders?"

"No. They went after the others."

"So you don't know who it is? They are?"

"Dalaedyth are denying it besides they are not yet powerful enough to totally destroy an Aesir but this killer or killers do."

"So because I was exiled, by the First Elders, you guys automatically thought it was me."

He was silent

"Did it ever occur to any of you that the Dalaedyth maybe the source of these attacks."

"It's not; the attacks have been from an Aesir."

Rhiannon was silent; she could see why they'd think it was her, in fear. The Aesir had never let fear control them before, this situation had gone on too long. If only she had any idea how to stop it.

"Does anybody have an idea who it or they might be apart from me?"

"Huju."

"Huju-sensei?"

"He's on Neriah. He said he'd tell no one of his discovery until he speaks to you; so remember to take him-"

"Green tea leaves from Earth."

She got up and adjusted her cloak,

"Great tea or what-ever it is you got here." She said holding up the cup.

"Thank you. It's a brew I got from Dorinjan."

"I have to go now; I'll probably see you before I leave. Take care of yourself Doty." She said as she gave him a hug, and she disappeared in a flash of light.

Raexs materialised from the shadows,

"I'll assign a high guard to every Aesir outside of Aesirna that should reduce the number of deaths." Raexs informed Doty as he collected the cup of steaming fluid and sniffed it. Doty looked at him like a scolding father making him take a sip of the drink, it tasted quite good.

"Do you think we should return home?"

Raexs sighed.

Doty nodded and said, "Come have breakfast with me before you go."

* * *

Rhiannon reappeared in her room; she shrugged off her cloak and began to prepare for her shift with her usual morning ritual of loud music. She could understand why other Aesir would think it was her, they assumed she was angry at the First, so they would have assumed she had used the dark powers she'd acquired to try to destroy them and since she did not succeed would lash out at other Aesir, leaving the Second out of it because Lillith was one of them. A logical set up. A few minutes later everything was silent again as she stepped out of her room.

"Hi Hoshi, is the captain up here yet?"

"Yep he's in his ready room."

"Thanks."

Archer took a sip of coffee as he went through the beta shift's reports, he read it first because it was usually uneventful and the light reading helped his gear up for the rest of the reports. The door chime rang,

"Come in," he called

Rhiannon stepped in,

"Good morning Lt. Cmdr"

"Good morning, Captain."

"I thought you said you might be late?"

"Yes but I dealt with the problem a lot quicker than I thought I would."

"Good, shall we begin?"

"Sure."

They talked about the progress of the engines; they were still monitoring it after the speed boost she'd managed to get out of it, the plasma injectors soon needing replacement and her progress as the chief engineer. As she got up to leave,

"Well I am going to install the engine to the Aurora and was wondering if you'd like to come and run test flight with me?"

"The Aurora?"

"Yeah, that's the racer Travis and I are flying in the race."

"Are you sure you don't want Travis to do this with you?"

"Nah, I don't want to try his patience talking about stuff like dampening fields and such."

Jon contemplated for a moment; it was not like he had anything to do and it would be nice to get off the ship without doing anything official.

"Sure, why not?"

Truthfully she had not expected him to say yes. "Great so 1400hrs earth time?"

Archer checked his schedule, he seemed to be free at that time, "Give or take an hour."

"Alright, so I'd better get to work. See ya."

Archer smiled, and shook his head as he watched her go.

Before she returned to Engineering she stopped by Sickbay,

"Good Morning Doc" Rhiannon greeted as she walked in

"Good morning Rhiannon, here for more headache relief?" Dr. Phlox asked

"Yup."

"When are we going to sit down and talk about these headaches of yours?"

"Someday soon." She replied flashing a smile

"If you say so. The last time I asked about it you nearly had mental breakdown." He said as he prepared the hypospray

"I did apologise about that. So what are you doing today?"

"I found the most interesting do in the translated events calendar of the Enharans."

"That's cool, the Enharans are lovely people."

After she had left, Dr. Phlox held up the strand of hair he had taken while administering the drug. Now he was one more step closer to knowing who or what she was. Tests on her blood sample, which he took when she had her first serious injury, had shown she had more than a normal human's fair share of blood cells and some of the antibodies were silicon based. The blood platelets were fast acting and scar tissue would not be left behind after complete healing, but he had not seen any proof of that; yet. And now, he had her perfect DNA sample.

* * *

They were transported directly in front of the Aurora, its silver body gleaming in the sunlight that streamed from the open doors of the hanger.

"So this is the Aurora. It's looks amazing." Archer said as he gave it a once over

"I'm glad you think so; Travis just couldn't see it."

He laughed, "Well, I suppose we should get to work then. We've got six hours of daylight left."

"I'll get the parts."

Archer read the flying manual and assisted as Rhiannon installed the engine; he looked out beyond the doors at the sky. Her head came from under the pod, and she asked

"Are you ready?"

"I think I've read enough of the manual to know how to fly this thing."

"Well let's go then."

In the cockpit, she sat in the co-pilot's chair which was positioned behind and to the right side of the pilot's seat. He gave her a look and fastened his seat belts.

"Beginning test flight, charging engines." She announced as the engines came to life

"Boosters on, and functioning within normal parameters," She said as her hand flew across the holographic control panels around her, "We are good to go."

The pod's boost increased, giving lift off, it slowly taxied out of the hanger; once clear of the doors, the pod shot into the sky.

Jonathan gave a laugh; he turned to her and asked, "Where are we going?"

"We are taking a bird eye view tour. I bought an atlas." She said holding the book up.

They flew across the sea at the north pole of Emhart. The flew to the Nasaka Table mountains, which could be the highest table mountains Jon had ever seen, the top of the mountain ranges around were capped with a little ice, as though the heat below was strong enough to overcome the cold above. They flew over cities, and Rhiannon using the atlas as a guide, told him where they were. The sun seemed to be in the sky for a bit longer; Jon noted as the skimmed the seas looking for interesting sea life which emerged from the water as they passed.

"That's disconcerting." Jon said gesturing to the blue moon and two others that were now appearing as they flew back to the hanger.

"I think it's a tad more disconcerting if the moon is another living planet. But they are used to it. I'm sure if they were on Earth they'd feel quite lonely and homesick."

"We've got only one moon."

"Uh huh. At the end of this Festival all seven moons are seen in the sky."

"That would be a sight to behold."

"Captain I wanted to thank you for helping out, it was fun."

"No problem. It was really interesting." He said smiling. They went back to looking at the vista. It was getting dark when the returned to the hanger.

Jon executed a near-perfect landing back in the Aurora's spot.

Rhiannon powered down the engines,

"Is everything okay?" He asked, as he leapt out, when he saw her still toying with her control panel

"Yeah, I have enough info to improve the engine's efficiency, thanks a bunch Captain." She said as she shut the device down and leapt out of the pod, the windshield hissed close at her exit.

"Capt'n" they heard someone call, they turned to the voice, to find Trip waving at them,

"It's Trip." Archer said as he waved back, Commander Tucker ambled towards them

"I'm surprised you can even be down here, I thought you'd be using the afternoon to sleep off the hangover. Captain Hernandez is still hasn't recovered from last night's drinking."

"That's because she does not have Doctor Phlox as her CMO."

"That's for sure."

"But don't tell her that or she might want to steal him away too."

Trip seemed to notice Rhiannon standing beside Jonathan,

"Aren't you gonna introduce us Captain?"

"Oh, sorry, Trip. This is Lt. Cmdr. Rhiannon Worth Enterprise's new chief engineer. Rhiannon this is Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker."

"Good evening, it's nice to finally meet you. I've heard so much about you." Rhiannon said as she held her hand out for a handshake

"I can't say the same, but it's a pleasure." Trip replied as he took her hand

"It's okay. I'll leave you two to catch up."

"Are you going to be in the race too?" Trip asked Rhiannon

"Yes. Are you in the race?"

"Yes. May the best man win, huh?"

She will. "Indeed, may the best man win." With that she returned to the pod and started checking out the cooling system.

When she was out of earshot,

"Capt'n you've been holding out on me. You didn't tell me your new engineer was a babe."

"I didn't tell you anything period."

"So what's she like?"

"What's she like how?"

"To work with?"

"Brilliant. Eccentric but brilliant."

"You two seemed pretty cosy a few minutes ago. Are you two…you know?"

"No, Trip we're not. We are just friends."

"What ever you say, captain."

Jon just shook his head, and turned to look at the sky.

"So, how has it been for you on the Columbia?" Jon asked after a while

"Great. We don't seem to get in as much trouble as the Enterprise though. We sure used to get into some messy scrapes, didn't we?"

"Yeah, we did and still do."

"I miss that."

"We miss you too."

The two men shared a moment of nostalgia but Trip's next question knocked Jon off his mental rocker.

"So is T'Pol seeing anyone?" Trip asked

"Now that's a silly question." Jon replied when he recovered from the shock of the question.

"Is she?"

"Unless, she has magically created some fantasy guy; no, T'Pol is not seeing anyone." Except if you counted him and T'Pol kissing as anything, "Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. I suppose a part of me is hoping we can still be together."

"That really depends on you and T'Pol." Jon said quietly, "You did leave because of her. Have you told her you felt this way?"

"Yeah, but she said it wouldn't work."

"She could be right. You are serving on different ships now. When did you talk to her about this?"

"Last night at the party, she wouldn't listen to a word I said."

After which she kissed him.

Jonathan only shrugged.

"After all you both went through, I'm not surprised."

"Thanks, Captain. I better go now, that pod of mine isn't going to build itself."

Rhiannon watched as Trip left. The captain stood watching the sky. She'd felt the shard of hurt when Trip informed him that he and T'Pol had a quarrel the night before. He felt like a rebound guy and she was drunk! A few minutes later, he walked back in.

He found her installing the charged particle converters while she listened to some music. She looked up when she heard him, and cocked her head to one side as she asked,

"Is something wrong?" she asked

"No, why do you ask?" he replied

"You look a bit low."

"Nothing's wrong."

"I know! Let's go and eat."

"Eat?"

"Yeah. Food; good food, that is, always cheers me up. Besides I'm hungry" She said as she grabbed both their jackets

"You seem to always be hungry." he said as she pulled him with her.

They ended up in front a tavern, one of the Enharan mechanics at the hanger had directed them to.

"Someone once said; to know a culture eat their food or something of the sort. I suppose it doesn't get more cultural than this." Rhiannon said after they were seated. The restaurant was crowded, it was a wonder they got a table.

"The engineer I asked back at the hanger said this was the place most of the competitors come. So we can get a gander at the competition, here."

They spent the next few minutes pointing out races they knew. A waiter came to their table, to take their order. They perused the menu with the UT. Jon switched off the UT, and said in a low tone,

"Rhiannon, I really don't think this was a good idea."

"Why? Are you afraid you might pick bowl of Enharan fruit bat lice?"

"That exactly."

"Some people think it's a delicacy."

He gave her a look of fearful disgust,

"Relax ma capitaine. Rhiannon is here to make sure we don't end up eating bowl of lice. Leave it to my powers of perception."

Jon watched in amusement and trepidation as she closed her eyes and her hand circled the menu. She stabbed at a spot on the menu, opened her eyes and said,

"We'll have that."

She turned to the waiter, and switched to Enharan,

" We'll have a bowl of cooked jumjub seeds, topped with unihi gravy and fried pkanla; the best catch of the day, fried lightly not extra crispy. For the appetizer we'll have koshri soup extra spicy and for dessert we'll have gurundi cakes. And please bring a pitcher of nura fruit. Thank you."

"What did you order for us?" Jon asked

"If you did not use the UT, it's a surprise then." She said smiling

"I sincerely hope we won't end up on Phlox's biobed with the alien version of salmonella poisoning."

Rhiannon only giggled. And she turned to watch the peoples coming in and going out.

"So tell me about yourself. I realised I know nothing about you except you are a damn good engineer and you are British but your file in Starfleet doesn't say much."

"There's nothing much to tell, my life as a whole is pretty uneventful."

"Come on. How come I've never noticed you? I'm sure I'd remember such striking hair."

"I did not want to be noticed so I spent most of my spare time in my room or off campus."

"So what did you do in your spare time?"

"If I'm in my room I'm studying or sleeping or watching movies or I practice my martial arts."

"And off campus?"

"I'm either at a club, back home in England snoring a rainy day away."

At that time the waiter came with their soup and a pitcher of a clear purple drink. Jonathan looked sceptically at the bowl of fiery red soup in front of him, he looked at Rhiannon; she was happily tucking in, she smiled and mmm-ed, and her eyes sparked with unexpected delight as she exclaimed, "Yay, seeds." 

If Rhiannon was enjoying it…he dipped his spoon into the bowl and took a sip. Alarm bells rang in his ears as the soup felt like he'd just taken a taste of very tasty fire.

"Hot, hot -- hot." He said as he tried hung is tongue out in the air,

"Don't do that – here." She said as she handed him a glass of the drink, it instantly calmed his tongue. Rhiannon was obviously trying not to laugh.

"You could have warned me you know."

"And miss that, no way. Besides I didn't think you couldn't handle a little bit of spice."

"A little bit?! What are you saying? It was like eating a spoonful of fire."

Rhiannon laughed and said, "With all due respect, Captain, I think you are being a little melodramatic, but now you've drank a bit of juice it should be better."

He took another tentative sip, she was right it was better, he found himself cleaning out the bowl.

"I told you you'd like it."

"So what's next on this 'cultural tour'?"

"Our main course."

As if on cue, the waiter brought their plates. Jon looked in horror at the spiky fish that graced his and Rhiannon's plates, it sat on a bed that looked very much like rice but with smaller sized grains and leafy gravy. He looked at Rhiannon, she was pulling out the spikes with her fingers and placing them on the plates supplied, he followed her cue, but being a bit more careful this time, he took a bite of the fish and found it quite deliciously tart, the food did not take half bad either.

In the end he had to admit, the food was great and he had fun, and Rhiannon was very engaging company. They were having their desert, a sweet whole-grainy cake she called gurundi, and she was still teasing him about the way his eyes bulged when he saw the fish on his meal when he was grabbed by the head by the largest, slimiest and smelliest hands he'd ever had the misfortune of grabbing his head. Rhiannon had been lifted by her braided pony tail. Her angered face turned to meet her assailant's; an Ortholog.

" What manner of creature is this? " Big-Ugly 1, holding Rhiannon by her pony tail, asked Big-Ugly 2 who held the captain's head in his hand.

" This one wriggles. " Big-Ugly 2 replied, as Jonathan fought the hand of his assailant.

" They look like over sized rag dolls."

" Let him go" Rhiannon said in their tongue.

" This one speaks our tongue. "

Jon frowned, they had not met this people before, and how did Rhiannon know how to speak their language? He'd have to ask her after this mess was cleared up.

" Let-Him-GO "

" And what are you going to do, puny one?"

" This. " At the cost of a great deal of pain, Rhiannon kicked him in the head with a force that corresponded to the pain she felt from him holding her by her hair, sending Big-Ugly 1 flying across the room letting her go. Big-Ugly 2 seeing his comrade beaten, dropped Jonathan, and went after Rhiannon. Rhiannon ducked into his charge, lifted him on her shoulders, and threw him over onto his head. Jon stood upright,

"That has got to hurt."

"Hmm…whatever, as long as I'm the one dishing out the hurt. I'll deal with the payment so we can get out of here."

They headed for the door when the Captain was yanked back and thrown across the room; Rhiannon quickly used her psychokinetic powers to hold him in the air, before he crashed into a table, and dumped him unceremoniously on the floor before facing their assailant, Big-Ugly whichever, Orthologs looked the same to her. She tackled him into a table leapt off him and threw him over her shoulder across the room. She cringed as he crashed into a customer holding a knife over his dinner. She ran over to the captain,

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, something kept me from crashing into the table."

"I think we should go before this become a bar brawl." She said, but it was too late, the Ortholog she'd pushed out of her way, was having a fight with the customer he crashed into,

"I think that's too late for that." Archer said nodding in the direction of another commotion that had arisen, "But still a sound idea." He dusted off the seat of his pants and the quickly headed for the door before the Orthologs noticed them again. Once outside they ran round a corner and hid while Archer called the ship for them to be beamed up. A few seconds later they stood on the transporter platform. They breathed a sigh of relief, and ended up laughing uncontrollably, in the moment of mirth. They headed for their quarters.

Jonathan Archer forgot to ask his chief engineer where she'd learnt to speak the language of their assailants.

T'Pol was headed for the mess hall when she rounded a corner and collided into Lt. Cmdr. Worth and the Captain.

"Hi, Commander, sorry."

"No need for apologies I was not looking where I was going."

Rhiannon only shrugged

"How was your day, T'Pol?"

"Fine. Nothing serious happened while you were away."

"Good. Where were you headed?" he asked

"The mess hall."

"Okay, we've had dinner so there's no need to wait for me." He said throwing a smile at Rhiannon who smiled back. He obviously was not worried about the occurrence between them last night.

"See you later T'Pol." He said as they headed in the direction of the quarters.

Rhiannon watched the exchange between the Captain and T'Pol, she stole a glance back at the younger woman, then back at the captain. They had kissed. The image popped into her head straight form the Captain's mind and he was in knots about it.

They parted ways at her door,

"We should do this again." He said before he left

"The fight or dinner?" she asked

"Dinner," he replied, "hopefully we won't meet people who are in a habit of grabbing people they meet by the head."

Rhiannon laughed, and entered her quarters. Her quarters were unusually tidy; the books and knick-knacks which she'd collected over their journeys sat neatly on the shelves instead of her bed or floor. She fell into her bed a bit worn out from the day's excitement.

The day of the race dawned. Rhiannon was off the ship before most of the alpha shift has even thought of waking. She wanted to do a last minute diagnostic on the pod. As the day progressed the hangers began to be filled with pilots and press

* * *

Back on the ship, T'Pol emerged from her bath, she lit her meditation candles planning on getting some meditation in before she went down to the surface, she was going to spend sometime looking around the city while most of the population were watching the race. She put on her robes and sat down to meditate when the comm. rang, she rose to answer it,

"Commander, there's a call for you from the Columbia; it's Commander Tucker."

"Please put it through Ensign."

"Sure thing, Ma'am."

Trip came on, "T'Pol hi."

"Good Morning Commander what can I do for you?"

Trip took a deep breath, he had been rehearsing for this since the captain told him T'Pol might not have been herself that night,

"I'd like to see you before we leave."

"Our two ships will not be leaving for another three days."

"Yeah, but I want resolve this as quickly as possible so we can both enjoy the rest of our time here together."

"Very well, I'll meet you at the Columbia's tranporter bay in two hours."

"Actually I was thinking after the race, I am in it."

"Very well, then."

"Thanks wish me luck."

He rang off before she could say the concept of luck was illogical. She went back to meditating. An hour later when she felt firmly grounded she went to have breakfast.

Archer headed for the messhall, on his way he met Travis dragging his flight suit,

"Morning Captain."

"Morning Travis, where are you headed?"

"To the hanger, Lt. Commander Worth told me to meet her there ASAP. I just don't feel quite ready to take on such a feat."

"Travis, are you having cold feet? I don't know why you are worried you are one of the best pilots in Starfleet and I would have thought the prospect of being one of the first humans in a space race of this magnitude would light the fire in your flying soul."

"Yeah, it will be pretty exciting"

"You are a great pilot; I really don't think I need to be telling you that." Archer said as he put a hand on the younger man's shoulder,"as for me I need to get myself some breakfast, good luck to you guys, see you when you get back." He turned and headed off to the messhall and Travis turned toward the transporter bay.

* * *

The race began with the Aurora in fifty-sixth place; everything was going fine so far. Suddenly, the panels changed to yellow,

"What's wrong?"

"Racer 91, approaching from heading 121 mach 25 and firing."

"What the hell, no one said there would be shooting!"

Travis dodged the shot, and Rhiannon fired back disabling the racer. They continued onwards; there was a flash in his line of vision,

"That's the layout for the first leg of the race, don't worry just leave the finer points to me."

They reached the Dyolos asteroid field; everything seemed to be fine as the dodged the onslaught of meteor rocks, suddenly they were fired upon from multiple headings, Travis dodged some of the attacks but flew into the range of fire as he moved the ship out of the way of a meteor, the racer was knocked back by the force of the fire, Travis pulled the stick forward on its track stabilising the racer then pulled behind a seemingly stable rock. He turned face Rhiannon who hadn't said a word since the attacks started,

"What is going on?"

"It was an ambush, like I said the other racers are going to attack but I did not believe they would do this." She replied as her hand flew over console

"Got 'em" she announced, the panel at his side lit up with coordinates of were their attackers were. Travis flew the ship out of hiding. He pulled the racer to a left side spin as two rocks collided, swung around in a wide arc, he saw a faint shimmer where one of the attacking racer was supposed to be,

"Optical stealth," Rhiannon said, "Easy, ultrasonic radio wave will help us deal with this team of idiots." A new holographic panel appeared in front of him showing the enemy position,

"Why didn't we think of that against the Romulans and Klingons?"

"It doesn't work with their kind of stealth technology; the one they are using for is not as powerful."

The wave helped greatly, the enemy appeared as pulses on the radar. Travis took the ship into a wide arc, and fired disabling one of the enemy racers, the pod spun on left to right as if dodged canon fire from the enemy. He fired back disabling two more, five left.

"Let's make this faster, we are running out of time."

"How?"

"I'll take over firing for a moment." She switched firing controls, the ion cannons on the upper wings of the Aurora were retracted, a new pair emerged from the lower wings; there was a ringing as it charged up, "Travis, I need you to fly heading 360 mach 31."

"Up?"

"Well…yeah" Travis pulled on both sticks and the pod shot upward, spinning on its axis, Rhiannon fired the new cannons, the shot hung in the air like a star

"What is it supposed to do?"

"Watch." Suddenly the 'star' shot burst, firing five shots out which homed in on their hiding enemy.

"I suggest we leave, we have more obstacles to face." She said, Travis pulled back on the right stick and then the left firing the boosters of the upper wing propelling them forward. As the pod flew farther into the asteroid field, out of the rocks emerged silver automaton with crab-pincer like arms, the had large torso parts and their lower bodies were jet propulsion shaped into a cone; the automatons shot after the race pod.

Her sensors told her they were nearing the end of the field, when the console began to blink bright red.

"What's that? Other racers?"

"No, I don't know what it is."

"Can't you fire the starburst thing at them?" Travis asked

"We are flying too fast. If we stop to charge the cannons up they'd attack and disable the ship, it's a little too early for that don't you think?"

Travis thought about it, the Lt. Cmdr. was right heaven knew what else this race had in store for them that was a lot more difficult than these space crab things, so he did his best to dodge their fire, since it disrupted their control systems, he shot the pod forward but they matched and surpassed the Aurora's speed as it tried to get past their attack grid. He turned the ship onto it's side, he increased speed as he aimed for a narrow gap in there guard, one of the crab like sentries noticed this and a shot came from it crab claw hands, disrupting the systems again,

"Commander, we need to find a way out."

"I know but with them firing at us, it's slowing me down…right, got it, change course, heading 235 mach 45."

Travis swung the racer into the heading, the sentries following close behind, they passed a couple of racers who turned and followed them when they met with the 'sentries'.

They were flying through a quiet stretch of space; the sentries had stopped following a couple of millions of miles back, so they had slowed down. Rhiannon felt a sense of unease but she shrugged of off putting it down to the suppression of her power. There was some radio chatter, it was translated so they all could understand each other. She listened to their conversations with little interest, she was trying to make sure everything was back online and not damaged by the disruptors of the crab sentries, suddenly the whole cockpit was flashing red, Rhiannon tried to shut down the alarm, there were a few things that could cause the little racer to go off like that, and to her dismay all around them little spheres of explosives began to appear,

"Holy-" Travis began

"Holy minefield, indeed."

"How are we supposed to get out of here?"

"I'm not the ace pilot here."

"But if we gun engine we'd be toast, they'd be on us like ants to a sugar bowl."

"I- Rhiannon was about to reply when they were hit by one of the mines and lightening arced through the cock pit knocking them out.

Ten minutes later, Rhiannon woke up with a headache, she called to Travis,

"What happened?" Travis asked groggily

"We were hit." Rhiannon

"But we stopped moving."

"I think it's our opponents playing 'get the mine off my back onto yours'."

They were hit and knocked out again

"What should we do?" Travis asked when they woke again

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"I don't know." After a moment's pause, "Nothing's working, I need sometime to think but with-

They were hit and knocked out again

"Lt. Cmdr. with all due respect, we are sitting ducks!"

When there was no reply; he turned to look at her she was still slumped, unconscious.

They were hit again.

When he woke up again, the consoles were working again, he felt a prick and a hiss behind his ear,

"Are you okay?" Rhiannon asked

"Yeah, what was that?"

"Something for the headache and dizziness."

"What do we do now?"

"Go back."

"Go back where?

"The asteroid field, this place is a lock down, those guys out there are still trying to get the mines off themselves and I've used the sensors to check this field extends for cubic light-years."

"Why would anyone put a minefield that extensive?"

"To keep enemies away from their planet. But their enemy was within. Such needless battle, in the end there was nothing left but this minefield."

"How do you know all that?"

"Oh I just read the history of the System, they also had turrets. I wonder where those are?"

"I think we should stick with the problems at hand before we start searching for more"

"Yes. I will remove the speed dampener, to increase anti-mater flow."

"So we can go faster?"

"Two times faster."

"How many speed dampeners do we have?"

"Five"

"So in all we can go ten times faster."

"Yes but I would not recommend it unless we are doing some wormhole travel."

"Wormhole travel??"

"Don't worry about that now."

She said as she restarted the engines. Travis held onto the driving sticks and pushed the racer forward, and it shot off, with a mass of mines following closely behind. They re-entered the asteroid field, Rhiannon gave him the heading and he pulled the racer in that direction, Travis swung into an arc past an asteroid moving the way, the following mines collided with it, blowing it up into dust and rock. There was still a good amount of mines following them when they reached the 'crab-claw-handed' sentries. The sentries shot at the racer but the increased speed made the race harder to hit, they passed through the barricade they had formed, the mines following hit the automaton causing a chain explosion, that destroying most of the sentries. Travis yelled in joy and relief as they went further into the race.

* * *

Back on the ship, Archer was headed for his quarters as he skimmed through his personal PADD looking for a book to read for the afternoon, he did not have anything official to do so he wanted to relax before the after race shenanigans the Enharans had plans for. He was about to enter his quarters when he heard T'Pol call, he turned to her,

"Hi, T'Pol."

"I wish to talk to you Captain."

"Alright, come on in." Jon said as nonchalantly as he could muster, as they entered Porthos trotted over, he carried the dog and patted its head, then he went and sat on his bed

"Have a seat."

"I'd rather not, I won't be long.

"Okay, so what is it you wanted to talk about?"

She held her hands behind her back, "I wanted to apologise for that night."

"I don't think you should worry about that, people tend to do crazy things when they are drunk, and besides u did not know the drink was alcoholic."

"That is no excuse for my behaviour"

"Okay, apology accepted."

"Thank you, Captain. Good evening." With that she left.

Archer sighed, here comes another month of common awkwardness. He picked the PADD up intending to read, but he was not in the mood anymore, so he switched on the vid-screen to watch the race. According to the standings, Rhiannon and Travis were twentieth now.

* * *

The Docara Space station, in the System of Hoa, the Galaxy of Haxa.

It was an Aesir station, and for the first time in a very long time it was filled, children ran about the halls, while the adults talked about the upcoming trip. Everyone knew what was going on, but the children played and the adults lounged around like they were not in a hurry. Raexs entered the main lounge; he looked around, a man waved to him from the middle of the room. Raexs headed towards him,

"Argan."

"Raexs."

"Is everything ready?" Raexs asked

"Yes, all ships have been prepared and ready to go, but I still think it would be wiser if we left in groups."

"The Dalaedyth and their new allies can wipe out a lot of us that way, this way a lot of us reach Aesirna."

"I see your point, I'm just…" Argan's sentence was cut short, when he felt a tug on his trousers; he looked down to find his daughter. He picked her up,

"Argan, I'm scared, can we go home?" she asked as she hid her face in his neck

"Soon, Kava, soon." He said then he turned to Raexs, "I suppose we should listen to the child and be on our way.

* * *

The Aurora burst out of a nebula – its coloured gases streaming after them- pursued by a couple of other racers.

"Why are they chasing after us, can't they just go after themselves?" Travis asked

"They think we are a big threat, we did just wipe out seven of them back there."

Travis dodged more photon fire

"I told you that was a bad idea."

"If we didn't go after them, they'd have come after us, either way same end result."

Travis had gripped his joysticks tightly; his mind was on frantically dodged the fire in split second moves. Rhi had told him he was doing great – she had told him to stop calling her Lt. Cmdr., it wasted too much time. She was doing quite well herself, she was handling the firing leaving him to concentrate on flying, sometimes it seemed she was in his head; she always compensated for sudden change in direction when ever he made one.

They ended up in another quiet stretch of space, but Rhiannon, taking from recent past experience, was not convinced but as they moved onward there seemed to be nothing up the system's sleeve as it were. They were coming up to a planetary satellite system much like Jupiter when without warning a shot was fired at them,

"What was that?"

Suddenly a silver turret appeared right next to the racer, and several more began to appear in dual line like lights on a runway.

"Here they are." Rhiannon said as though finding something important she was looking for.

"How the HELL are we supposed to get out of here? Isn't there another way?"

"Don't wig out. Yes there is another way but this is a shortcut if we make it through it will bring us to Enhara the system's star and we are most of the way to the finish line."

"Have you gone mad?"

"Frankly Travis it's your decision, we can go the easy and get shot at all the same."

Travis frowned, "Fine, we'll take the 'corridor of death' onward."

Rhiannon gave a broad smile and announced, "Releasing dampener two."

Travis had thought this racer could not go any faster but the rate at which he whizzed past the turrets' fire was convincing him otherwise. Every slight dodge he made was a big deal out there and he also had to be careful of the gaseous giants the corridor wrapped around. After two gut wrenching hours,

Travis gave a yelp of joy casting a glance back to see out through the cockpit glass, when he heard, "Travis look out!"

Rhiannon's console started flashing but it wasn't caused by the pursing racers, she looked up to find a gas giant planet looming over them.

"Travis, look out!" Rhiannon called, he snapped out of his reverie.

"What?!" he tried to pull back, but they were hit by a large photon torpedo, that sent them into the gaseous planets magnetic field and pulled the racer into its gaseous depths into the grasp of it's gravitational field gravitational field.

Travis tried to fly the racer back out but the harder he pulled the planet held them in its grasp

"Rhiannon…we are going be crushed if we don't do something."

"I'm trying to calculate the gravitational field so I can calculate the escape velocity so hang on tight."

The alarms were on again, the racer's structural integrity was coming apart,

"Rhiannon, I don't think we have time-

"Look, Travis, I'm doing the best I can, so shut up and keep hold." Rhiannon snapped. Her hair stuck out in all directions from pulling, how she found time to actually try to pull out her hair he did not know. Finally the calculations came through,

"The gravity is 4.75; I have to unlock dampener three, and opening the ventral charged particle vents."

A rushing sound was heard as charged particle flow was increased, and the ship shot forward as it began to reach the escape velocity, the ship vibrated as they neared the desired speed, Rhiannon heard a faint chink, as the racer broke free of its gravitational captivity and shot into space at a breakneck speed.

Suddenly they pulled to a stop, in front of a star.

"Is this safe?" Travis asked

"Yeah, this is Enhara. It's just past its ZMS making it a little older that our Sun. We are just outside of its magnetic field and gravity well, far enough not to feel its influence but close enough to be protected from everyone else by EM radiation, hopefully." She said as she stood up and walked to the rear of the cockpit which had storage cabinets

"Where are you going?"

"We have a damaged booster and part of the hull has been destroyed. I am going to fix it." She replied as she handed him a helmet, before she turned round he put a hand on his shoulder

"I am sorry for yelling at you, I do not seem to be really good at dealing with stress. To think I had only just accused you of wigging out."

"It's okay, it was nerve racking." He said giving her a smile, whish she returned. She put the helmet on and connected herself to a cable,

"If you want to come out to stretch you legs a bit, the cable pulls out easily but if you want to return, you have to yank on it and it automatically yanks you back in."

The cockpit was decompressed and turned into a vacuum, the cockpit windshield slid open and Rhiannon floated out holding a case for her tools, she quickly got to work on fixing the damaged booster and hull. A few thousand miles away, two racers engaged in a fire fight, suddenly they collided the resulting explosion sent debris flying in all directions.

Rhiannon had just completed the repair, when an object hit her helmet hard. She recovered from the daze caused from the hit. As she picked up her tool case, she saw, only too late, a piece of hull plating headed straight for her as she tried to jump out of the was, it struck her in the abdomen, sending a spray of blood out that were suspended in the vacuum. She immediately felt the pull of sleep that occurred whenever she had a life threatening injury, and her body was thrown back as she eyes shut and she drifted off.

Travis was fiddling around with the controls while listening to some music, when a shadow fell over him looked up, to find Rhiannon floating away with blood coming from her. He frantically decompressed the cockpit and was out before the cover fully open, he pushed himself off the ship and tried to get to her quickly before the vacuum drew out too much blood. Once he got close to her he grabbed her but she fought him even in her state of unconsciousness,

"Lt. Cmdr., it's me, Mayweather. Travis. Stop fighting me."

"Leave me alone, puny mortal."

"Commander," he shouted grabbing her hands, her protest was making it hard for him grab onto their cables and yank. Suddenly she fell still, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, he yanked at both their cables, and they were pulled forcefully back into the cockpit, her eyes opened slightly.

"Travis…Have we won?"

"No, we haven't." He looked her over and found a piece of hull plating in her abdomen.

"I'm so sleepy…" He put on her seatbelt and went back to his seat. He tried to decided what to do, they were a few hundred light years from the finish line if they don't move soon Rhiannon could die,

"Commander you have to help me, you understand the computer this thing's got more than I do."

She opened her eyes, "And we could come last." She replied, "I've only got a minute or two awake," Her hand held her abdomen and she winced in pain, "this thing hurts like the devil, I wish I could pull it out."

"You can't you will loose more blood." He said

"I have sent the codes to your console, I was going to navigate the stream but I can't now."

"The stream, what stream?"

"Ether. The stream of energy called ether; it is like a clear path. The racer is already in search mode, when you enter the stream you need precise movements to navigate it, the codes I sent to your console will aid you. Now I just need to sleep in peace." With that her eyes shut again. He shot back to his seat, the computer had input the headings and steered the ship in that direction. As he reached the coordinates, his chair leaned back and the racer began to reshape itself, his visor lit up and codes were input into it. Suddenly he was surrounded by a haze of purple that shot the ship forward at an incredible speed toward the finish line.

* * *

It was like a whisper of wind from the airlessness of space, but all of the Aesir in the entourage heard it and sprung to action,

"Quickly, teleport the young ones, our combined power will get them to Aesirna." The fleet pulled to a stop, while a collection of them took care of the young ones safe teleportation back to Aesirna, the others began gathering their powers together as they phased out of their ships into space, and the battle began. Dalaedyth appeared from the darkness,

"They feel different." One Aesir said to the other,

"I am beginning to sense this is the end for us."

"So I suppose we should take a couple of Dalaedyth with us."

An Aesir created a ball of energy over his head and threw it into the darkness, striking the first blow, the ball hit, dispersing around the shield and a feminine maniacal laughter was heard, "Today the beginning of the end for the Aesir and a the beginning of a new era of darkness. Attack; kill them all."

In the midst of the battle Argan called to Raexs,

"You knew this would happen, didn't you? You made us bait."

"It was imperative to know what we would be facing, it is the sacrifice we have to make Argan, deal with it."

Argan felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned to look into the watery eyes of his wife, Finia, "Argan, please do not be angry with Raexs, we must do as he asks for the protection of the whole, for Kava." He pulled her into his arms, and he felt resolve as his initial fear faded away, he turned to Raexs his sword coming aflame,

"Let's go and give them peace."

* * *

On Aesirna, the Aesir there sensed the danger and begun to take flight to help but the Elders called them back,

"We cannot go; it is what must happen, for now we must take care of the young ones coming."

The other Aesir stared at each other in puzzlement, but returned to the surface. In the gardens around the great hall, the five aged Aesir; two women, Adar and Phytre, and three men, Lhix, Jana and David, known to the Aesir as the First Elders stared at each other, then, one of the females spoke.

"It has finally begun. I am surprised it took this long, Dalaedyth don't have a history of patience." Phytre said.

"Indeed." Jana said nodding his white head

"But she is not ready yet, still twiddling her thumbs, after five hundred years." David said, irritation his voice, he'd been pacing since they found out about the Dalaedyth.

"David, I think you should sit down you are making me dizzy, besides you are getting too old for pacing. Rhiannon will understand what she needs to do when the time comes, not before; you can't go up to her and conk it in." Adar said calmly, she maintained the air of serenity the Elders were supposed to carry even at times like these, but it was hard, they were seeing the beginning of the end for their people of something was not done soon. But all five of them where also sensing an even closer end, their return to the source of life.

"I think it is time we released them, they aren't powerful enough to do anything to us yet." Lhix said, staring up at the dome into space

"Give them a choice to stay or to go, if they have not let the dark corporeal take over their reasoning."

"Those who wish to stay will be a boon to our side of the camp, those who wish to go… Let's go and get it over with quickly, those kids give me the hibbies."

"David McArthur, you are an elder, get a grip, man." Lhix said

"It isn't like we've not been to see them a lot of times before."

"Yes, but the malice coming from some of them could kill a lesser being."

"Yes I know and today they will be free to do what ever they please." Phytre said her voice solemn

"And if they try anything, they will be destroyed." Militaristic Jana said, a frown marring his leonine face.

They soon reached the gate separating the 'tainted' from the others, it was a difficult decision the Elders made to separate them from the rest of Aesirna, it was what they could come up with to equal Rhiannon's exile, but had a purpose; would such a separation from all the children held dear bring resentment or acceptance, that eventually showed them that all power was good in the right hands, the greatest challenge was not allowing it to control one.

The gates opened of their own accord, but it could only be opened from the outside in. The children, now teenagers marched defiantly up to the Elders, but the latter's steps did not waver, but merely passed the young ones by and went to the dias they usually sat, Adar, most serene of the Elders spoke

"We have decided to allow you leave of this place, and if you want, live with your family and friends again on Aesirna but you must be ready to be Aesir, to follow our code and fight for the protection of the universe's children and our race, or to what you might wish to term as freedom out in space. Which do you chose?"

Murmurs rose amongst them as the spoke amongst themselves. Ilinare, a fair haired teen who fancied himself leader of the group spoke,

"We all choose to leave"

"Is this the choice all of you want?" Adar asked

"No," a feminine voice called, the crowd and the elders turned to the person, Andrvarr, a blue-haired girl with serpentine eyes hailing from Gylos. On seeing her one would think she would wish to leave and become a leader of this new mergence , "No I do not wish to leave, you cannot speak for every one here, Ilinare, and I am sure there are others here who still believe, after all, in the good of the Aesir and one of our greatest sayings power in the hands of the good is good no matter what energy it is, it is only a tool we should control and not allow it to control us." As she said her last words her eyes settled on Ilinare. After Andrvarr's speech, eight more joined her. Adar turned to Ilinare's group,

"Ships will be provided for your departure, may the energies guide your way."

The return of Andrvarr and the rest was marred by the death of the Aesir at the hands of the newly empowered Dalaedyth and the pain Aesir felt when one of them was killed. They were even more saddened at the loss of Ilinare and his companions, but Andrvarr and the rest we treated like they'd never left, assimilated as though they we always there. Later, Adrvarr came to see Phytre and Adar,

"Where's Rhiannon?" she asked

"She was exiled." Phytre replied, as she tended to the plants

"That's why we were separated, too." She said in realisation, "Are you going to ask her to return?"

"No, we can't. Rhiannon has to return of her own accord, she has yet to accept her new status unlike you." Adar replied

"When she is ready she will return, hopefully nothing changes before she is ready."

Andrvarr nodded and began to help Phytre with the plants.

* * *

On Enterprise, Phlox was feeding his pets and taking some time out from watching Rhiannon, she had had several cardiac arrests during the night, at one of the times her eyes had opened and glowed white which disconcerted the doctor. It was a miracle she'd survived the slice to her abdomen, when she'd come in she had begun rapid healing around the shrapnel, he'd had to slice it out and try to put everything together for her healing powers, he did not know what else to call it, to do it's job well. And she hadn't woken once since the operation, it seemed her bodily functions shut down during the deep healing process, her brain function was minimal as well except during the cardiac arrest when it shot through the roof. He did not feel proud of himself but he had used this opportunity to scan her bio signs thoroughly and had come up with nothing, she was well and truly human in everything except when her DNA was closely scrutinised the differences showed. For the most part the DNA was unstable which suggested she may be able to shape shift and made him think she was a Suliban in the disguise and he nearly told the Captain but something made him stop and continue the investigation before he put it to the Captain. He found that her DNA was not fully helical and compared to true human DNA all of the parts were activated, there was no 'junk' DNA. He did not know what to make of it, but he decided against telling the Captain, he'd keep it to himself until he found out if her intentions were contrary or not. When he was done with his pets, he went to check on Rhiannon again but found her bed empty.

Rhiannon stood naked in her room looking at the stars. Her right hand was held up and a trail of glowing lights streamed out of her hand through the bulkhead into space.

'You know, many more deaths like that are going to happen' she heard what seemed like her own voice, but like three of her talking from one, say to her, she turned to find herself but with black hair and eyes standing behind her.

'I have sat silent and watched you ignore my existence within you. I suggest you deal with it for I am here to stay."

With a cry of rage, she lunged at the ephigy, leaving an after image of herself staring.

"It was your kind that did this, killed all those Aesir," She said as she held onto the throat, but it did not fight back.

'_Listen to me, my kind cannot do anything, we dwell in the energy the humans call subspace, we need physical bodies to make an impact in this space, our power is a tool and the Dalaedyth are using it. So are you going to use your new tool or let it rot?'_

Rhiannon's hands slackened,

'Remember you have something they don't have, the fortitude not to be tempted by the lure of more power and even more, you have a conscience to use it in the side of good. Use me, I am here to stay.'

Rhiannon let go and collapsed heavily onto her bed. After a minute she seemed to come to her senses and she rose from her bed, she pulled on a loose fitting shirt and trousers. Just as she was about to leave to return to sickbay before Phlox had a heart attack, he barged into her quarters with Malcolm,

"Lieutenant Commander, might I remind you, you just came out of surgery and should not be running about." Dr. Phlox said, worry in his voice. He held her arm and pulled her up, "Come on, let go back to sickbay."

"Is she okay?" Reed asked.

"Yes, she's a little out of it because of the sedatives I gave her-

"I'm fine," She said, "I just needed to get some clothes on your sickbay is much too cold."

She returned to Sickbay with Doctor Phlox, as she returned to her bio-bed, she smiled to Phlox and said, "I seem to be apologising everytime I'm on this bed. Anyway, sorry for making you worry, I just-"

"It's alright Lieutenant Commander, no harm done."

"Very well then goodnight."

* * *

Two days later Rhiannon was up and about. They were at the Enharan president's mansion for the penultimate harvest party, the crew of the Columbia and the Enterprise had been invited and most of they were on the dance floor trying to learn the traditional Enhara dance. Rhiannon turned away from the party to the scenery, her body was tingling; overflow, she had to do something about it before she started glowing. She looked below her, the garden sprawled before her. She smiled as she leapt over the third floor balustrade. When she landed, she threw a look behind her to see if anyone saw her, there was no one; she walked slowly into the garden. She found a large old tree and sat beneath its branches, she removed her shoes and pushed her feet into the sand and she let go and she felt the rush of power flow into the earth and she breathed a sigh of relief as turned to the moon dominated sky.

She had talked to Travis earlier in the day…

"We came third," brandishing the large trophy, making her wonder how big the trophy for first was.

"Who came first?"

"The Enharans."

"Home field advantage. Who came second?"

"Commander Tucker."

"What?!" Rhiannon's voice reverberated through the mess hall causing and ensign to drop his plate and everyone to stare at her, "Sorry." She said meekly and then shot out of the mess hall dragging Travis behind her

"You are not happy."

"Of course I'm…happy. This was supposed to be my break."

"Your break to what?"

Rhiannon sighed, "Never mind, what's done is done. So is there going to be a party or what?"

"The Harvest Festivities tonight."

"Oh yeah. Ah well, might as well go and pick a dress or something." She turned to leave but Travis stopped her,

"You know, I think we would have won, if we did not ended up in that black hole of a planet."

"That's the way it was meant to be, I think I needed my wings clipped, if you know what I mean. See you tonight, make sure you wear comfy shoes 'cos we'll be dancing the night away."

She turned to go but then stopped again, "You really are a great pilot, Travis."

"Better than you?" he blurted out without thinking, "Oops, sorry."

"Definitely, I gotta go, picking a dress takes ages…

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in; she opened them to find the captain in front of her,

"Hi Rhiannon, what are you doing out here?"

"Fresh air, smell the grass and flowers. You?"

"Same." He said as he sat down beside her, he had in his hand a glass of the blue drink.

"Visitor's wine."

"The one and only. Don't worry, one glass is enough for any visitor, I just did not want to offend our host by not drinking it."

"I think you just like getting tucked in by me. Do you plan on taking a bottle?"

"Maybe just one, I-

"How about two or a crate?"

"Rhiannon, am I to deduce from your questions that we have a crate of visitor's wine onboard."

"Actually it's a barrel." Archer did not know if he should be angry at her or hug her. He liked the wine, its effects on T'Pol aside, it wasn't Trellium. It may look like Andorian ale but it tasted a whole lot better and it did not hit you in the gut and make you woozy. Instead it gave a whole new meaning to slow systematic take over.

He stood up and held his hand out to her, "Come on, let's go back to the party."

Trip scanned the ball room for T'Pol. All that business after the race had made him unable to keep his appointment with her. He finally found her talking with a group of enharans, she looked really beautiful in her emerald green dress. He quickly tried to make his way to her, but getting stopped to talk. By the time he reached her she was moving off to the balcony, even better. He took a deep breath and walk to her,

"Hi," he greeted

"Good evening commander."

"Sorry, I couldn't talk to you earlier I did not expect to come second or all that hullaballoo that went down when Travis and you engineer Rhiannon came in, the Captain seemed really worried.

"Yes, he was."

"So... See this morning when I called I was hoping to be able to win you back, even if it was on your terms, but during the race, when that crazy engineer of yours was shooting at everything in sight, it occurred to me that you were right if it did not work out when we were together how would it when we are apart, I was just too blind and pig-headed to see that."

"I am glad your vision has now cleared, and you finally see my point."

Trip laughed, "I hope can still be friends though."

T'Pol held her held to one side and said, "Of course."

"I wonder where the Captain is. I haven't seen him for a while."

"You fight dirty, human." The ortholog said patting her back, jostling her.

"Is that supposed to be a compliment? And stop patting my back you are getting slime all over my dress." The ortholog only laughed louder, the captain looked amused. Travis was the one who unwittingly came to save her from the Ortholog onslaught of back-patting, "Lieutenant Commander, I remember you promising me a dance or several."

"Yes, I did." Before she left the plucked the glass of blue wine out of the captain's hand and gave him one that looked like whisky, "You'll like that one too." She said and she twirled off to the dance floor with Travis.


	6. Growth

Archer is still not mine, sigh. I apologize for any grammatical errors still left here, but have been staring at it for about six months now.

* * *

Insert strange title here

Rhiannon walked alongside Archer, T'Pol and Malcolm to the shuttle-pod bay

"Here is the list of things for you to see to." Archer said as he handed her a PADD. T'Pol had given her the duty roster for the next three days earlier. She skimmed through; she certainly had a lot of things to do. She looked at him and smiled, it was the first time she'd ever been acting Captain, her smile hid the fear.

The fear of failure hung like a sword of Domacles over her head but she smiled anyway. The captain had been invited for a three day tour of the world of Ianokal along with the head of states of the major countries of the world. Archer was about to board the pod but turned to her and put a hand on her shoulder and smiled,

"Don't worry you'll be fine." He said trying to reassure her as though he sensed her uncertainty

She nodded, "Have fun."

Archer rolled his eyes, "I doubt it, politicians arguing about which countries have the best resources is not my idea of fun."

"Captain" T'Pol called, "we don't want to keep the Ianokal waiting."

"Enjoy." He said as he entered the shuttle pod. She nodded and waved. After the shuttle pod departed, she sighed and returned to the bridge. Maybe things would not be so bad, then she sighed again who was she kidding, fate was just as cruel to her now as it was to the mortals, probably even more so, heaven knows what could happen, the invasion of mutant plants created by Doctor Phlox and Lieutenant Harden in Hydroponics, which ate every human in sight…the engine going critical because of someone's foolish mistake, hopefully not hers…the tactical team tampering with something or the other and it going critical. She sighed; the scenarios were so highly improbable that anyone seeing into her mind now would think she was crazy. But it did not stop her from having nightmares.

The three days went swiftly without any major incident, to which Rhiannon was grateful. That afternoon she helped the chef in the kitchen, to prepare for the captain and his guests for she was bored and had nothing to do. The decks were polished and everything was looking ship shape. She laughed at the memory of her panicking over being left alone, but these three days were as easy as pie, and speaking of pie, the ones she had put in the oven should be ready, she picked up the oven mittens and went for the pies, just as she placed them on the table Hoshi voice called over the comm-link,

"Lieutenant Commander could you come to the bridge, please?"

"Be right there." She pulled off her apron and waved to Chef, he nodded and she left.

A few minutes later she exited the turbo lift to the bridge, "What's up, Hoshi?"

"I think you should listen to this, ma'am."

Rhiannon sighed inward, she hated being called ma'am it made her sound ancient. She took the ear-piece from Hoshi and listened

"What is it?" She asked while she tried to make out the words, it was unclear to do static caused by the ionic wind caused by a solar flare.

"It's an announcement by the Secretary of State of the Farla Ianokal Empire."

Rhiannon frowned as the broadcast became clear to her; the Heads of State on tour with the Captain had been kidnapped including the King of Farla Ianokal.

"Do you think the Captain was with them?" Hoshi asked

"No, the broadcast says it was when they were returning from seeing the captain off, judging from that, Captain Archer should be here in the next twenty minutes."

But the sinking feeling in her stomach was growing. She handed Hoshi back the ear-piece. She turned headed for the captain's ready room when Hoshi announced,

"We are being hailed from the surface; it's the Secretary of State of the Farla."

Rhiannon sighed and turned to the main viewer,

"Put him through."

Lord Biraifa, this was the first time she ever laid eyes on him and she did not like him,

"Lord Bi-

"I am sorry to say that your captain has been kidnapped along with the Head of States of Ianokal and there was no ransom note but rest assured we have begun investigations into the matter already."

An exclamation of shock rang through the bridge. Rhiannon tried to appear calm,

"Lord Biraifa, I'd like to send our security team down to aid in the investigation."

"No, that won't be necessary my men would find the traitors who did this soon enough."

Rhiannon wasn't convinced, she could sense he had something to do with it. Without thinking she said haughtily, "We will expect results in three days. After that if there is no change, we will join the investigation whether you like it or not, we need our captain to continue our mission, I hope you understand that."

"Of course," He replied

Lord Biraifa rang off. Rhiannon's legs gave way under her and she collapsed into the captain's chair and she put her head in her hand. The bridge crew were all staring at her; they did not trust her to be able to save the captain. She did not trust herself either. After a few moments, she said,

"What should we do commander?" Hoshi asked. Rhiannon sighed inwardly, what would a human captain do? What would Captain Archer do? What would she do as a human captain?

"Travis put us into the higher atmosphere of the planet, geosynchronous orbit."

"Higher atmosphere…?"

"Yes, they won't see us, if you are worried about ion particles put the hull plating on." She turned to the tactical officer filling in for Malcolm, "Laferty, please scan the area of the shuttle-pad Shuttle-pod two was parked and all surrounding roads."

"What are we looking for ma'am?"

"Anything that might clue us in on what is going on."

"I'll be in the ready room. When Laferty's done, Travis take us back out into orbit."

In truth, she wanted to go to her room and scream at the walls or something. She stood at the window where Archer usually stood when he needed clarity, what she needed right now was basic wisdom that applied to the mortal way of handling situations like this, and standing in someone else's place of clarity was not where she was going to do that. She exited the ready room and without a word to anyone left the bridge.

* * *

Archer groaned as his eyes slowly opened, he found T'Pol looking worriedly over him, a look of relief passed swiftly across her face,

"Argh," he groaned as he sat up, "remind me not to leap out of a moving shuttle-pod again."

"Captain, are you alright?" T'Pol asked

"Yeah, nothing feels broken but my head hurts like the devil."

"Glad to see you awake sir." Malcolm said

"Yes, quite." Another voice said, "I really would have hated that you died on our behalf." King Andrakon of Farla stood on, "You were out so long I thought your girlfriend was going to start crying."

Archer liked the king, he was fair-minded and straight forward with his views plus a sense of humour but he seemed to have gotten it into his head that T'Pol was his girlfriend. He looked around, they were in some kind of glass cell, the other dignitaries were in cells next to theirs and there were four to a cell which was why they ended up with matchmaking King Andrakon.

"Where are we anyway?"

"It seems like an underground military facility." T'Pol said

"But we were blind folded on our way here we can't be sure," added Malcolm.

"How would terrorists-slash-kidnappers have access to a military facility?"

"That's what I'd like to know." The king said, "Its good thing I made arrangements should this kind of thing happen. My man would hopefully come through."

"Who do you think is behind this, you majesty?"

"Please, Andra is fine, you saved my life. Formality is useless now. But I cannot tell you whom I suspect, I'd rather be wrong. What about you?

"Worth."

"Another girlfriend, I wouldn't have thought that she would let you have anymore, you humans are full of surprises."

"She's the chief engineer, I left her in charge."

"The MACOs and the tactical team."

"Do you think Lieutenant Commander Worth will be able to rescue us?" Malcolm asked

"Come on, let's have some faith in her, it may be her first time but she's always struck me as someone who always has a trick or two up her sleeve." I hope.

* * *

"The results of the scan are done, commander."

"Thank you. What did you find?"

"We found the shuttle pod a few miles from the take off point. It seemed they were already in the air when they had to stop again."

"They probably saw the kidnapping taking place and tried to rescue them and got caught along with them."

"That could be the case." Laferty said.

"Hoshi, keep listening to Ianokal frequencies, keep me posted on anything of importance. And someone go retrieve the pod without too much fanfare."

The next three days that passed were the longest three days in every in Rhiannon's long existence. It felt as though Time had pulled everything into slow motion. They could not find the away team's individual bio signs anywhere. She had spent the time sitting out on the hull studying the world below. She knew where the Captain and the rest were, she knew of Biraifa's plan. She phased back into her quarters. She out on her uniform over her black body suit and headed for the bridge. Three days, that was enough for Baraifa to put his plans into motion, just cooked enough to see, to expose.

She sat head in hand in the captain's chair and the other hand drummed on the armrest,

"Call him." She said in a tone that made everyone jump. Hoshi hastily hailed the surface

Baraifa's image came on-screen, Rhiannon stood up,

"Lord Baraifa, it's been three days and you still haven't made progress in the investigation. I'd like to request permission to join the investigation."

"Permission granted. We'll have all the data and evidence we collected at the Royal Police Headquarters."

"Very well, we'll be there in thirty minutes." He rang off.

"That was easy." Hoshi said. Rhiannon's gaze flicked to her

"Too easy, he's up to something." She turned around and headed for the turbo lift.

"Could you please call all the MACOs and tactical team to the mess hall, thanks."

She retrieved a plate of apple pie and picked a table. This was going to be a long day. Some one coughed and she looked up; the MACO and tactical teams were standing there.

"You requested to see us."

"Yes, first of all we have been given permission to join the investigation to find Captain Archer and the missing dignitaries, so I'd like four volunteers, two from the MACO and two from the tactical team, so both of you can combine your expertise in the investigation." Their visage seemed relieved, they had been getting antsy when they had heard nothing from the prime minister, "I'd also like the rest of you to be on high alert."

"High alert? Why?"

"I don't know, just a hunch." She said frowning, but she smile and said, "Humour me, okay, but keep this from the rest of the crew."

"Yes."

"So I'll meet you guys at the transporter platform in about 10 minutes. That is all."

She headed back to the bridge,

"Mayweather, once we are on the surface take the Enterprise closer to the system's smaller binary, it emits a certain radiation that will keep the ship hidden from whoever is searching. Sato, you keep listening to frequencies used in the Palace City, anyone you can find, something fun might happen."

"Why do you want us to hide?"

"Trust me, you are much safer out there than here." She pulled on her Starfleet jacket, "I'll contact you immediately we find the captain and this mess is sorted out. Looks like a nice day to crush a man's delusions of grandeur. Wish me luck and stay safe, I'll keep you posted."

They arrived in the Palace city within the hour. They were led by a nice looking stewardess to a garden where the Secretary of State Lord Baraifa was giving a speech,

"...and so we must come together as a people as we walk in this darkness we have fallen into. Gather our strength and strike back at our enemies, here they are, brazenly coming to 'discuss' the terms of our surrender after kidnapping our beloved king Andrakon of Marasulin." He pointed at them,

"Men, arrest those evil doers!" the Royal Guard appeared behind them,

"What?! We didn't do anything! We did not kidnap your king!" one of the security team members loudly protested, they fought and protested their innocence but to no avail. The aliens were going to take the blame. As they were being dragged away, Baraifa said, "Our fleet will capture their ship and we will bring back our king!"

An unseen smile played upon her lips, 'you'll have to find us first, bastard.'

* * *

They ended up in the prison of the Royal High Guard, each to a cell.

"I can't believe this; we walked right into a trap."

"Hmmmm," Rhiannon replied

"You've only been replying, 'hmm' to everything, you are our commander, command!"

Rhiannon sighed and talked to him, "There's nothing we can do for now, so just relax for a bit."

The gates that led out of the cells, opened and Lord Baraifa walked in,

"I must thank you humans for helping our people come together for the good of their world."

"You bastard you lying bastard"

"I'm assuming you are insulting me, I have no idea what the word means so it is wasted."

Rhiannon sat against the wall, with her back to him, "So how are you going to explain the absence of the king on the Enterprise when you capture it?" asked in Ianokal

"We aren't going to capture it, we are going to destroy it, claim that your people self destructed taking our beloved king and the other presidents to the Unending Waters with you. In their grief they will then unite as one people under a new ruler, me."

"How do you plan to do that?"

"All the captains I'm sending after your ship are loyal to me, they have their orders."

"I see. You've got it all set under Mukka."

"Ah, an Ianokal saying. I merely came to tell you that you will be executed once we destroy your ship. Pray to what even gods you worship, and if you have none, the Ianokal gods are always looking for followers."

"One more thing though, before you go, where is the king?"

"He's in a secret military installation to the east. You will all be executed together. Now I must go and comfort my people."

After he left, Rhiannon broke into laughter, the rest of her team looking at her as though she had gone mad from fear and stress,

"Bad guys are soo easy. I'm getting some sleep, I suggest you guys do to, we must look good for our execution."

'Wake up, Princess. Time to go,' A voice said in her head, she smiled and sat up in her bed, looked around. Someone had taken her advice and gone to sleep, the others were pacing their cells. The gates opened and a tall Ianokan entered. He had green hair and lapis blue eyes that was characteristic of the high-born Ianokal. He wore a dark green suit, he had no weapon. He was not alone. Three male and two female Ianokans wearing the same uniform as him came in. Rhiannon tried hard to keep from grinning at the sight. He turned to her and gave her a quick wink,

"Guard! Open the cells. We are going to question the prisoners at our facility."

"But sir, the secretary said-"

"We answer to no one but the king. Take them to our command vehicle. NOW!"

They were hustled outside where a convoy of several large assault vehicles were parked. They were taken inside one of the vehicles which seemed to serve as a command centre with officers worked diligently at their consoles. A few minutes later they were on the move while they settled in, the 'mystery man' introduced himself,

"I am Saran, High Commander of the Royal Guard."

"We have nothing to say,"

"Relax, we know your people didn't kidnap the King and the rest of the Heads of State. You must be famished." Saran turned to one of the officers and said, "Connect with the dining and sleeper vehicles. I'd like our guests to get some rest before we reach the desert."

"Yes sir."

He turned to them, "We'll stop once we are out of the city to give everyone a chance to prepare."

"Prepare? Prepare for what? What desert?"

"We are going to rescue the king and your captain."

"I don't get it." One of them asked when they finally stopped and was taking a break.

"Don't get what?" Saran asked in between mouthfuls. They were in the dining vehicle.

"Why now? Why didn't you rescue them before?"

"We didn't know where they were. Your commander was able to get the information when Baraifa came to visit." The officer looked over to Rhiannon, who was happily chomping on her meal.

"So I take this is one of those, deceive your teammates so you can deceive the enemy type plans, huh? That's why you came to rescue us, you and the commander where already in cahoots."

"In a sense, the High Commander contacted me a few days ago, he told me what he thought, I told him what I thought and we hatched a plan. Simple."

"And why couldn't you tell us?"

"Do I have to say, realism. Anyhoo, I can't act to save my life. You should have noticed something considering I was smiling half the time."

"I thought you had gone nuts."

"I'm already nuts. Generic bad guys are easy, once they believe they're plans cannot be stopped, they begin to gloat. Baraifa is a generic bad guy."

"Commander, I think you've been watching too many movies."

Rhiannon laughed. After everyone was rested and refreshed, the convoy moved at an incredible speed toward the Ior desert in the east. Meanwhile they had a briefing with the task force on the plan,

"The Ior desert military installation is one of the few remaining monitoring installations left over from the Great War. This is because it is generally not seen because of a cloaking shield which also acts as a security shield, it protects the installation against everything except the weather and people on foot."

"So how do we plan to get in there?"

"On foot. One person will infiltrate the installation where the hostages are being held and shut down the shield and the rest of us charge in."

"Why hasn't anyone tried this before?"

"There's a large distance between the periphery of the shield and the base itself. The shield is only weak enough for someone to pass through during a sandstorm. No Ianokan likes sandstorms. Besides the place is so well cloaked none knows it's there."

"So who's going in?"

"I am." Rhiannon said, "There's a sandstorm coming up according to the... uh... weather report  
"Huh? You're the engineer; I don't think it's for you. How are you going to tackle a base full of guards on your own?"

"One of the key criteria as a Starfleet officer is flexibility. My skills do not begin and end with engineering. Besides, it is this skill that would help me bring down the shield without need for feedback."

"No no, the captain will not forgive us if we let the chief engineer runs head first into danger and not come out of it."

"There will be no captain to forgive you if we don't do this. As acting captain, what I say goes, I say I'm going in and you are rescuing calvary, got it?"

"Fine commander, have it your way."

She turned to Saran and smiled, "They've got it."

After the meeting, Rhiannon sat on the roof of the vehicle staring at the stars as they went by. She heard the chute door open, she turned to see Saran coming up.

"I thought I'd find you here."

She smiled. He ruffled her hair when he got to her.

"How've you been?"

"Restrained. I've been so tempted to just drop in there and blow the place up...

"...and wipe a few memories while you're at it."

"Argh, when did I become so sensible."

"You've been away for millennia now, I'm sure that came with the territory."

Rhiannon pouted, "Awww, you've changed," he said rubbing her head.

"More like I hate sucking people's memories, and it'll hard for the victims to explain lost time if it occurs all the time. But at least I get to do the sandstorm. That will definitely make up for the lack of explosions."

"I'm doing the sandstorm do you think you're the only one itching for a little release?"

"Are not!"

"Are too."

"Are not!"

"Are too"

"Why don't we cook it up together, I'm sure between us we can come up with a passable one."

Saran laughed and ruffled her hair some more, "You're doing well, I'll make sure to tell everyone. But all is not well with Aesirna."

"I know, I felt it. I've never felt so empty. When I tried to connect, it's like reaching into nothingness. So many, dead. How...how did they do this?"

"You know the answer more than any of us."

She did, she know it all too well. It sat in her mind waiting for her decision. Luckily these days, she hadn't much time to think about it. Even now she shoved the thoughts and temptations away.

"Let's focus on the little people right now, shall we? The Dalaedyth will surely pay, but for now..."

"...for now, let have fun with the last of our little lives."

She smiled in agreement.

Between them they cooked up the worst sandstorm ever recorded in Ianokan history, the skies over many cities turned dusty red, and the resulting lightning and thunder was seen and heard for miles around. They got back into the command vehicle, laughing at their handiwork,

"The sandstorm's started." They announced

"It looks so bad, ne?"

"Yes, it does." Mirth gleaming in their eyes

"What's so funny? If it's as bad as you say it is, you can't go out there commander."

"Oh don't worry about me; it's the Ianokal you should worry about." She said as she turned Saran's face to show, it looked like it had been sandblasted, it was beginning to heal as skin was already creeping back over the exposed flesh."

The MACO stepped back in shock and disgust.

"Their skin is thin. In the outfit I'm wearing an Ianokal will be sandblasted to death."

He nodded and walked away.

One of the Ianokal officers called, "Sir, we have reached the periphery of the shield."  
"Alright, everyone mobilise."

Five minutes later, Rhiannon stepped out, in an indecently tattered dancer's outfit. Dark Ianokal blood stained her. She was given a cloak, a small backpack and a cute belt pack,

"Is that what you're wearing?"

She nodded

"In this storm?"

She nodded.

"You'll be flayed alive!"

"No I won't. Stop worrying. I've been briefed already. The cloak I'm wearing is a high tech experimental shield that should keep me from harm."

"Experimental?! I would like to note down my objections."

The rest of the enterprise security team nodded,

Suddenly Saran pulled out a baton and slammed her in the knee, everyone gasped in shock,

"What are you doing?"

"She needs to have a limp. For realism."

"Cool, see you there." She said as she leapt out of the vehicle. She pulled the cloak on and began her trek.

Saran smiled at her figure as she disappeared into the storm,

_Take care._

_Of course I will, but that was incredibly painful._

He laughed out loud.

* * *

Five hours later, Rhiannon, tired and hungry, reached the installation. Her leg throbbed in pain. From the outside it was a small building surround by a fence. There was no one patrolling out because of the storm. She began banging on the gate. Finally someone answered,

"Please I beg you for the love of Mukka, help me!" She cried and performed a nice convincing faint.

Vabrian had been a mercenary a long time. None of his former jobs had paid him this much. He was literarily walking on air with this one. During the border war between Sei and Kaoon Ianokal, his family and all of the villagers had been killed by rebels and he and other boys of the village were taken in as recruits by them. Now fifty years had passed, and it seemed he would finally get his due, it was all going according to plan, one of the men returned from seeing who was at the gate,

"Who was it?"

"It was a dancer; she seems to have been attacked. She unconscious now, we put her in one the empty dorms."

"Hmmm, we'll send her on her way once the storm clears."

"Yes sir."

"I'm going to see the prisoners."

A strange howling echoed through the complex, Malcolm jumped awake,

"What is that sound?"

"There's a sandstorm brewing outside, a bad one it seems."Andrakon said

"We really should think about getting out of here, it already been three days. Rhiannon must facing resistance from the authorities."

"I'm sure if they can find us they would have. I know where we are now, and it would be very difficult to escape."

"Yes it will," Another voice said from outside the cells. A large man stood outside their cells. He was large not with fat but with muscle. His hair and eyes were dark green, "Your majesty." He said mocking.

"Who are you?"

"There's no need to know my name, All you need to know is I am your jailer and your executioner."

"What? Please release me, I'll give you riches." The president of Kaoon Ianokal cried

"I'll give you power and riches."

"I'll give whatever you desire." Others piped up

Andrakon stayed silent and watched the man,

"I already have those things waiting for me after you are all killed once we find the aliens' starship. They will be taking the blame for your disappearance."

"What?!" The members of the Enterprise sat up in shock.

"It seems you understand what I am saying."

"What do you mean we're taking the blame?"

"Your comrades who came to search for you have been taken into custody by the authorities."

They stared in shock,

"It's only a matter of time before the ship is found; they disappeared from radars a few hours ago. Till then enjoy your last hours." With a smile he left. The enterprise group hunched up together and began talking in whispers,

"We need to get out of here. But how?" Malcolm said

"We make our planning too obvious because there are surveillance cameras everywhere." T'Pol noted

"But they can't understand English without the UT. We can sit around looking as nonchalant and distress as possible and hatch a plan."

"If we take them off...our fellow captives won't understand us."

Malcolm switched his UT off and said "Let's be honest do we want these fat arses to understand us right now, they'll most likely sell us out to save themselves."

"Well that is most likely going to happen." King Andrakon said, they all looked at him in shock,

"I have a good grasp of languages, yours is not very difficult. I was taught just before you arrived."

The sat back on the bunks,

"Since this is a Farla built installation you must know the layout of this place."

"If I knew the layout of all the installations we've built that would make me really a really brainy scientist or my security chief. I only know the general layout not much more. We would have to rely on good old trickery and deceit rather than secret passages."

The nodded and looked to T'Pol.

* * *

Rhiannon opened her eyes to find a man staring down at her. She sat up in shock and pulled the covers to herself,

"Who? Where am I?" She asked breathlessly, her breathing fast and shallow.

"You're a pretty one, aren't you?" He said leering. "A little odd but still pretty."

"Please, don't touch me. Not again. Don't touch me!" She cried, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Jaramun!" someone called in a loud and authoritative tone. Her assailant straightened,

"Leave her alone. Once we are successful, women will throw themselves at you, you won't need to force yourself on them."

The man came closer, a quick mind scan showed her he was the big boss, and big he was. He dropped her things on the bed, they'd been searched, she deduced. She looked up at him with fearful appealing eyes, or at least as fearful and appealing as she could manage. It seemed to work, for he merely said,

"There are showers behind that door. Use it to wash off the blood. You can stay here till the storm clears, after that someone will take you to the city."

She nodded and bowed to him.

He walked away. His eyes were on the prize, he didn't need an ugly underweight dancer distracting him from that. After both men left, she made full use of the showers. In her backpack were black close fitting long sleeved mid-riff baring top and matching trousers designed to look like a dancer suit. It was really a protective bodysuit. She put the fresh clothes on and buried herself under to coarse blankets to sleep.

Two hours later she awoke, she found a guard in the room. He was supposed to watch her but he was asleep. Quietly she looked through her belt pack; it contained tools to sabotage the shield generator, grappling micro-wire rolled into a jewelled bracelet and came with a variety of hooks - the wire also doubled as a strangulation wire but she must not be too enthusiastic with it or she may lop a head off, a pretty beads and balls that released a neural gas that froze victims into position temporarily. She gingerly got up and placed the pillows to look like she was beneath the blankets and arranged a wig to look like her hair was all over the place. She crept up behind her watcher and gave a good kick to the head, he collapsed like a log and she put him to bed. She peeked out the door and looked both ways, good thing the base was built cylindrical around the tower generator, so she could see all around. She left the room and jumped over the railing. Well, it was the fastest and most inconspicuous way down.

* * *

"I do not like this idea."

"It's not about like or dislike, it's about us getting out of here."

"Vulcans don't play act."

"It seems the 'Vulcans don't' phrase is rearing its ugly head again."

T'Pol took a deep breath and instantly regretted it, the smell of unbathed Human and Ianokal was overwhelming,

"See that use that repulsion of our unbathed selves and channel it into your acting. Besides it shouldn't be too hard, you've not meditated at all these past few days."

T'Pol looked sceptical,

"I believe it is demeaning for a Vulcan to do this. Why can't you do it?"

Jon came closer and put his hand on her shoulders,

"We'll garner a lot more sympathy if it's a female. Just think if we pull this off and escape, you get three days off away from all of us. You can put your annoyance and frustration into the nerve pinch you'll be giving to the unsuspecting guard."

A flash outside the cells caught Malcolm's eye,

"Did anyone see something fall down just now?"

They all looked out,

"No."

"Just my imagination then. So Commander, are you ready?"

T'Pol took a deep breath again and nausea came over her, Andrakon shouted for help in Ianokal and two guards came over...

* * *

"Ichi, ni, san, shi, wisuki on za roku," Rhiannon chanted, a flash here, a buzz there.

The generator shut down and the power to the whole complex went with it.

Back at the convoy

"The shields are down, sir."

"Announce to all units, move in."

The convoy speedily closed distance between them and the base, in a short time the base was surrounded. The task force deftly scaled the walls of the fence and infiltrated the base.

* * *

T'Pol rolled around clutching her stomach, trying to pretend to be in pain while the captain and the others asked her what was wrong, two guards came in to check on them, and like the captain asked she put all her frustration into the nerve pinch they got, almost immediately they collapsed on top of her. She could not hide her disgust and she pushed them off as the captain helped her up and pulled her into a hug,

"You did well, T'Pol." He said softly. Someone coughed, and he quickly let her go, "sorry about that."

Just as they were about to leave the cells, the power went out.

Rhiannon melted into the darkness to consult the data given to her, the holding facility was five floors up. She heard the guards running about, even with the back up power walking about to obviously was not a good idea, she'd have to climb. She heard someone running toward her position, a guard which she assumed may be an engineer walked up to the console to deduce the problem, but she had to leave. She took one of her neural gas balls, took a deep breath and threw it. A minute later, the gas had dispersed the guard was well and truly frozen at the console, she shot her grappling wire up to one of the beams holding the generator in place and began climbing.

"What the – what now?" Malcolm said in frustration, the sound of running guards was heard. Back-up power came on, casting the base in a red glow.

Suddenly a familiar voice called out, "Everyone, stop breathing for about a minute."

T'Pol heard the sound of gas being released and quickly motioned everyone to stop breathing. In the dimness of the light, they saw the guards being stopped in their tracks. A minute later, they heard a bit of grunting and a hand appeared holding on to the railing; they watched in shock as Rhiannon climbed into view,

"Hey kids," she greeted smiling broadly.

"Rhiannon, we were told you had been imprisoned."

"We were, sorry we took so long it's a long but fun story I'll tell you in detail once we get out of here."

"You haven't introduced me to our rescuer, yet."

"Ah sorry your Majesty," the Captain said, Rhiannon was pulled into view of a problem she had totally forgotten about, "King Andrakon, this is Lt. Commander Rhiannon Worth our chief engineer."

She saw the shock swiftly pass his face as he recognized her, she curtsied and smiled

"Hello your majesty, Saran sends his apologies for taking too long, everything will be explained once he arrives, which should be soon."

"Let's get the weapons, in case there are guards still awake." Malcolm suggested,

Rhiannon went to unlock the remaining cells, she began to key in the unlock code when she was grabbed from behind and slammed into the wall, spots appeared in her vision and she felt blood start to run from her nose. Before she could counter, she was thrown over the railing. Without thinking she shot the grappling wire,

Vabrian turned to the prisoners, his men had surrounded them, but their weapons were still trained on him,

"So you thought you could escape? You will d-" a thin wire appeared from behind him and entangled around his neck, strangling him. He looked over the railing to find the dancer girl hanging at the other end,

"You know Vabrian, if I swing really hard I might behead you." She said mockingly, although that maybe difficult, she thought, for his neck like the rest of him was a whole lot of muscle.

Using the distraction that had now caught Vabrian's guards, the enterprise group began firing,

Vabrian's face distorted in hatred, and to her shock he leapt over the railing. Rhiannon detached the wire, and fell to the ground hard. She had no time to recover and had to roll out of the way before Vabrian landed. She quickly got up and took a stance. Aesir in mortal form were still incredibly strong people but depending on what form they chose could still be squishy without their powers to protect them, and as a human Rhiannon was very squishy. Sometimes, someone squishy as herself had the misfortune of meeting those freakishly strong mortals and Vabrian was one of them. Her head was still reeling from the 'collision' with the wall and her ears were ringing, without a clear head any use of her powers will be flashy, she wasn't capable of subtle right now, so she put a lot of force into her punches but Vabrian hit back almost as hard with a punch to her gut, tears smarted her eyes but she ignored the pain ducked into his next punch and spun to land a kick up his jaw, sending him flying. Before he could get up to retaliate, several guns were pointed at him and the fight went out of him. Saran appeared,

"Yo."

"What took you so long?"

"Several frozen terrorists in the lifts and doorways."

She smiled and nodded, her knees gave way but Saran caught her and carried her.

"Why in eternity did you choose to be human?"

Outside the storm had subsided and the sky was a beautiful green, everyone was alright. Malcolm and the Captain had been injured in a gunfight she has been distracted to witness. Saran put her in the medical vehicle with them and the convoy made its way back to the Palace City.

* * *

Explosions rocked the enterprise as the crew fought the onslaught of the Ianokal force,

"We can't hold out much longer; they've shot out one of the nacelles and hull plating is down eighty-two percent," another explosion hit the ship causing the power to go out briefly,

"make that eighty-six percent." Laferty announced

"Five more Ianokal ships have appeared 3 parsecs starboard." Rogers called, manning the science station.

"Crap...

"Hold on, the newcomers are firing on the attacking ships."

The communication station beeped, Hoshi answered, a smiling Ianokal greeted them,

"We apologise for being late, we had a bit of resistance back home. Your superiors are safe and are awaiting your return."

"Sorry, If were sceptical, your people did just are trying to kill us."

"I'll send you a communications frequency so you can speak with them yourself."

A few seconds later, the Captain appeared on screen, bandaged but alive, relief washed over the bridge crew

"Hey everyone, I hear you are making trouble for our friends."

"Sorry sir." Mayweather said, grinning

"It's alright, let them accompany you back to their repair station, Rhiannon will join you shortly to oversee repairs. Archer out."

* * *

When Rhiannon awoke she was in a room that didn't look at all like a hospital. She lay in large bed, covered in sheets of high quality material. The room was large as well and overly decorated,

"I knew it was you, Shalya."

She tensed up, and looked towards the direction where the voice came from. Andrakon stood at the veranda watching her intently,

"So you really are a 'space-trotting immortal'." He said, his voice dripping with ice.

Rhiannon winced, "I did add –ish to that." Thirty Ianokal years ago, Andrakon, Kaba and Rhiannon had been friends during her stay. She had been posing as an adolescent cousin of one of the Lords of Farla who was also an Aesir. Andrakon and Rhiannon fell in love, but he was betrothed to Kaba, his childhood friend, who was madly in love him. She'd told them of her true self just before their wedding but they didn't believe her. She decided to leave to keep Andrakon's resolve or he would have eloped with her, and she being the type of girl who was foolish in the face of love would have agreed.

"I thought you were mad when you said that to me...

"Funny how fate works, huh?"

"You just disappeared after that, no messages, nothing. So you went to Earth."

"No not directly after, I was here till after you wedded, and then went to lots more places before I settled there."

"Why? Why didn't you write or call?"

"Why should I? You had your life to live, with me things were...at a standstill for you. If I wrote or called, you would not have moved on. Besides, your mother hated me."

The iciness in his expression melted,

"We were happy."

"We were kids, to be honest in my peoples' point of view I'm still a child." She rose from the bed and came up to him; she pulled him into a hug,

"You are happy now, aren't you? That is all I wish for you Andy, happiness and peace. So be happy Andy and make Kaba happy. Okay."

He nodded, "You haven't changed one bit; nothing about you has changed."

She kissed him.

"I should go. I have to oversee repairs on the ship." He nodded and moved to the door,

"Thank you Shalya, for coming to rescue us at the risk of your secret being exposed."

"Actually...I'd kinda... forgotten that you were king."

Andrakon burst out laughing, "Oh Mukka, you really haven't changed one bit."

"Goodbye Andy."

"Goodbye Shalya."

Queen Kaba stood watching the city in the royal chambers. She was a beautiful woman with lime green hair worn in an elaborate style and peridot eyes and pale grey. skin. She wore a pale blue outfit fit for the queen of Farla Ianokal, she turned when she heard the doors open and the king walked in,

"It was Shalya, wasn't it?" she asked softly

"Yes."

"So she really is a space-trotting immortal-ish. I thought she was mad when she told us that."

"Me too."

"Really? I thought you were so in love with here you'd have believed anything she said."

"There are somethings...she looks the same, the same as she did when she waved us off in the street, just more human"

"What did she say?"

"She said she wishes us happiness. And peace."

"When she didn't appear for the wedding, I thought I'd won. In the following years after, I realised, she let me win. If she had come then, you probably would have run away with her."

Andrakon remained silent. She smiled, "It's all in the past now. Will she be at the celebration in honour of the humans?"

"I don't know, their ship was badly damaged she has to oversee repairs." Kaba nodded in understanding.

"Come on, let's go. You have a speech to give." As she ushered him out of the room she took a last look at a picture on the dresser. It was of the three of them, she's like to say of happier times but the concept of happiness changed as one grew. She was happy now and so was Andra, and she was sure Shalya was happy too.


End file.
